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A  HISTORY 

of 

LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 
C.  s.  A. 


Written  by  Dr.  George  Little 

and 
Mr.  James  R.  Maxwell 


Published  by  R.  E.  Rhodes  Chapter 

United  Daughters  of  the  Confederacy 

Tuskaloosa,  Alabama 


U5 


This  History  of  Lumsden's  Battery  was  written 
from  memory  in  1905  by  Dr.  Maxwell  and  Dr.  Little, 
with  the  help  of  a  diary  kept  by  Dr.  James  T.  Searcy. 

From  organization  Nov.  4,  1861,  to  Oct.  15,  1863, 
this  data  is  the  work  of  Dr.  George  Little,  from  Oct. 
15,  1863,  to  its  surrender  May  4,  1965,  the  work  of 
Mr.  James  R.  Maxwell. 


I 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

Its  Organization  and  Services  in  the  Army  of  the  Con 
federate  States. 

At  the  close  of  the  spring  term  of  the  Circuit 
Court  of  Tuscaloosa  County,  Alabama,  in  May,  1861, 
Judge  Wm.  S.  Mudd  announced  from  the  bench  that 
Mr.  Harvey  H.  Cribbs  would  resign  the  office  of  Sheriff 
of  the  County  for  the  purpose  of  volunteering  into  the 
Army  of  the  Confederate  States  and  would  place  on  the 
desk  of  the  Clerk  of  the  Court  an  agreement  so  to  vol 
unteer  signed  by  himself,  and  invited  all  who  wished  to 
volunteer  to  come  forward  and  sign  the  same  agree 
ment.  Many  of  Tuscaloosa's  young  men  signed  the 
same  day. 

By  the  end  of  the  week  following  the  list  had 
grown  to  about  200  men.  Capt.  Charles  L.  Lumsden, 
a  graduate  of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute  was 
commandant  of  Cadets  at  the  University  of  Alabama 
and  had  been  contemplating  the  getting  up  of  a  com 
pany  for  service  in  Light  or  Field  Artillery  and  had 
been  corresponding  with  the  War  Department  and 
Army  officers  already  in  service  concerning  the  matter. 

These  volunteers,  on  learning  this  fact,  at  once 
offered  themselves  to  Capt.  Lumsden  as  a  company  of 
such  artillery. 

Dr.  George  W.  Vaughn,  son  of  Edward  Bressie 
Vaughn  (who  afterwards  gave  two  other  younger  sons 
to  the  cause)  and  Mr.  Ebenezer  H.  Hargrove,  also  of 
Tuscaloosa  County,  had  married  two  Mississippi  girls, 
sisters,  the  Misses  Sykes  of  Columbus,  Mississippi,  and 
were  engaged  in  planting  in  Lowndes  County,  Miss. 
Hearing  of  this  Artillery  Co.  they  sent  their  names  to 
be  added  to  the  list.  Dr.  George  Little,  Professor  of 
Chemistry  in  Oakland  College,  Mississippi,  and  his 
younger  brother,  John  Little,  Principal  of  the  Prepara 
tory  Department,  resigned  their  places  and  returned  to 
Tuscaloosa  to  join  this  Company.  Edward  Tarrant, 

M18G809 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


Superintendent  of  Education  for  Tuscaloosa  County, 
had  a  flourishing  educational  institute  called  the  Col 
umbian  Institute  at  Taylorville  four  and  a  half  miles 
south  of  Tuscaloosa.  He  gave  up  his  school  and  join 
ed  the  Company,  where  two  of  his  sons,  Ed  William  and 
John  F.,  afterwards  followed  him. 

Joseph  Porter  Sykes,  a  nephew  of  the  Sykes  sisters, 
had  been  appointed  by  Pres.  Davis  a  Cadet  in  the  regu 
lar  C.  S.  Army  and  at  his  request  was  assigned  to  this 
Company.  Dr.  Nicholas  Perkins  Marlowe  and  Drs. 
Caleb  and'  Wm.  Toxey  served  as  surgeons  at  different 
times  and  Dr.  Jarretts  and  McMichael  and  Dr.  Hill  also 
later.  We  mention  these  doctors  who  entered  the 
ranks  as  privates  as  emphasizing  the  spirit  that  was 
moving  the  young  men  of,  the  time  in  every  trade  and 
profession.  But  their  country  had  too  crying  a  need 
of  medical  men,  in  a  few  weeks,  to  permit  them  to  con 
tinue  to  serve  with  arms  in  their  hands,  and  all  of  them 
were  soon  promoted  to  the  service  for  which  their  edu 
cation  fitted  them,  serving  as  Regimental  and  Brigade 
surgeons  and  high  in  their  profession  after  the  close  of 
the  war.  In  May  the  election  of  officers  was  held  and 
resulted  in  election  of  Charles  Lumsden,  Captain; 
George  W.  Vaughn,  Sr.,  First  Lieutenant;  Henry  H. 
Cribbs,  Jr.,  First  Lieutenant;  Ebenezer  H.  Hargrove, 
Sr.,  Second  Lieutenant;  Edward  Tarrant,  Jr.,  Second 
Lieutenant;  Joseph  Porter  Sykes,  Cadet. 

The  following  were  appointed  non-commissioned 
Officers: 

George  Little,  Orderly  Sergeant;  John  Snow,  Quar 
termaster  Sergeant;  John  A.  Caldwell,  Sergeant;  A. 
Coleman  Hargrove,  Sergeant;  Sam  Hairston,  Sergeant; 
Wiley  G.  W.  Hester,  Sergeant;  Horace  W.  Martin, 
Sergeant;  James  L.  Miller,  Sergeant;  Wm.  B.  Appling, 
Corporals;  Wade  Brooks,  J.  Wick  Brown,  James  Card- 
well,  Thomas  Owen,  Alex  T.  Dearing,  Wm.  Hester, 
Seth  Shepherd,  Wm.  Morris,  Artificer,  Wheelwright; 
Wm.  Worduff,  Artificer,  Harness;  C.  W.  Donoho,  Bug 
ler;  John  Drake,  Farrier. 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


At  the  request  of  Capt.  Lumsden,  Dr.  George  Little 
went  to  Mobile  and  offered  the  service  of  the  Com 
pany  to  Maj.  Gen.  Jones  M.  Witters,  who  accepted  it 
and  promised  a  six  gun  Battery  fully  equipped  and 
ordered  the  Company  to  report  at  once  for  duty  at  Mo 
bile.  It  went  down  on  a  service  steamboat  and  was 
first  quartered  in  a  cotton  warehouse,  Hitchock's,  on 
Water  St.,  and  mastered  into  service  by  Capt  Benjamin 
C.  Yancy  of  the  regular  C^  S.  Army  horses  and  equip 
ments  were  furnished  and  the  Captain  was  ordered  to 
take  two  24-lb  siege  guns  to  Hall's  mills,  a  turpentine 
still  fourteen  and  a  half  miles  south  west  of  Mobile 
where  Gen.  Gladden  was  encamped  with  a  Brigade  of 
Infantry  and  wThere  a  battalion  or  artillery  was  organi 
zer  under  the  command  of  Major  James  H.  Hallon- 
quist,  a  West  Point  graduate,  and  when  in  a  camp  of  in 
struction  we  were  broken  into  the  life  and  duties  of  sol 
diers,  a  life  very  different  from  the  experience  of  any  of 
the  company  hitherto.  On  March  3,  1862,  the  com 
mand  was  marched  to  Dog  River  Factory,  a  march  of 
about  fifteen  miles,  when  we  boarded  the  Steamer  Dor- 
ranee  and  were  carried  to  Ft.  Gaines  on  Dauphin  Is 
land  at  the  mouth  of  Mobile  Bay. 

At  Ft.  Gaines  the  drudgery  of  camp  life  was  ex 
perienced  in  mounting  guns,  blistering  hands  with 
shovels  and  crowbars  and  noses  and  ears  by  the  direct 
rays  of  a  semi-tropical  sun. 

When  bounty  money  was  paid  to  the  command, 
another  new  experience  was  had  by  many,  for  released 
from  restraints  of  home,  church  and  public  sentiment, 
it  did  not  take  long  for  many  to  learn  to  be  quite  ex 
pert  gamblers.  But  the  more  thoughtful  sent  most  of 
their  money  home  to  their  families  and  parents,  and  the 
general  sentiment  being  against  such  a  lowering  of  the 
moral  tone  of  the  command,  Capt.  Lumsden  issued 
orders,  absolutely  forbidding  all  gambling  in  the  camp, 
with  the  approval  of  the  great  majority  of  his  men. 

About  this  time  by  some  unknown  means,  it  was 
reported  in  Tuscaloosa  that  Capt.  Lumsden  was  intern- 


6-  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

perate  or  addicted  to  drink.  As  soon  as  the  command 
heard  of  this  report,  they  took  immediate  steps  to  "sit 
down  on  the  lie,"  to  the  great  relief  of  friends  and  rela 
tives  at  home.  Neither  then  nor  in  any  succeeding 
years  could  any  such  charge  have  been  truthfully  made 
against  him.  The  boys  thought  this  year's  service 
around  Mobile  a  tough  experience.  They  could  not 
keep  cleanly  in  their  dress  nor  enjoy  all  luxuries  of  life 
to  which  they  had  been  accustomed  but  the  time  soon 
came  when  they  could  look  back  to  their  first  year's  ex 
perience  of  soldier  life  as  luxurious,  in  comparison  to 
rags  and  semi-starvation  that  afterwards  fell  to  their 
lot  for  months  at  a  time. 

Two  steamboats  were  each  making  their  weekly 
trips  to  Tuscaloosa  and  back.  Parents  and  friends 
came  and  went.  The  least  expression  of  a  need,  to  the 
folks  at  home  brought  the  wished  for  articles.  Noth 
ing  was  too  good  for  the  boys  at  the  front  and  fish 
and  oysters  were  abundant  in  season.  The  latter  were 
in  those  days  only  considered  eatable  in  the  R.  months, 
as  the  saying  was:  i.  e.,  during  the  months  whose 
names  contained  the  letter  R.  So  that  from  May  to 
August,  the  poor  things  could  enjoy  life  without  the 
fear  of  man.  Ice  was  not  then  available  to  preserve 
them  during  the  summer  months. 

At  Fort  Gaines,  Lt.  Cribbs  was  given  charge  of  the 
Ordnance  Department.  In  the  early  spring,  the  com 
pany  received  as  recruits  from  Tuscaloosa  many  good 
men.  Feb.  24,  1862  there  arrived  with  Lt.  Tarrant, 
James  T.  Searcy,  John  Chancellor,  James  Manly,  Ed. 
King,  Jno.  Molette,  T.  Alex  Bearing  and  ten  or  twelve 
others,  E.  R.  Prince,  Jas.  F.  Prince.  It  is  from  a  per 
sonal  diary  kept  by  James  T.  Searcy  that  much  of 
this  first  and  second  year's  experience  of  the  command 
has  been  culled  and  all  of  the  dates. 

On  the  trip  down  the  boat  "scraped  the  woods" 
considerably,  butted  out  one  tree  by  the  roots,  butted 
another  that  staggered  the  boat  without  injuring  the 
tree,  but  left  about  twenty  feet  of  the  guards  in  the 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


water  as  the  tree's  trophy  in  the  encounter.  Such  inci 
dents  were  in  those  days  quite  common  in  steamboat 
travel  in  low  water. 

Mumps,  measles  and  kindred  camp  diseases  made 
their  usual  inroads  on  the  health  of  the  command,  and 
many  of  them  had  to  spend  a  part  of  the  time  in  the 
hospital  in  Mobile,  George  W.  Smith  and  James  L. 
Miller  among  them. 

Major  Hallonquist  was  in  command  of  the  Artill 
ery  at  Ft.  Gaines  but  on  April  4th  was  ordered  to  join 
Gen.  Bragg  at  Corinth,  Tenn.,  and  Col.  Melanclhan 
Smith  took  command  of  the  Fort.  Officers  and  men 
were  longing  to  meet  the  enemy  in  battle. 

At  Ft.  Gaines,  a  few  Yankee  vessels  blockading 
could  be  seen  in  the  distance,  but  the  monotony  was 
wearing,  and  each  commanding  officer  was  pulling  all 
possible  ropes  to  secure  orders  to  proceed  to  the  front, 
in  this  case  to  Gen.  Albert  Sidney  Johnston's  army  near 
Corinth.  Capt.  Lumsden  got  promises  but  by  perhaps 
some  political  pull  Gage's  Mobile  battery  secured  the 
deserved  privilege  to  report  at  Corinth  and  in  the  bat 
tle  of  Shiloh  got  badly  cut  up  and  after  the  battle 
was  ordered  back  to  Mobile  to  recuperate  and  Lums- 
den's  was  ordered  to  Corinth  and  given  the  same  guns 
and  equipment. 

On  Sundays  near  Mobile  Dr.  Hill,  a  private,  often 
officiated  as  a  preacher  so  that  during  this  first  year, 
Sundays  could  be  distinguished  from  the  other  days  of 
the  week.  He  was  from  near  Columbus,  Mississippi, 
and  a  practicing  physician  as  well.  Tuesday,  April  15, 
1862,  three  days  after  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  found  the 
command  at  Corinth,  having  left  Mobile  on  Monday 
and  it  took  possession  of  Gage's  guns,  etc.,  on  April 
16th,  got  tents  4:00  p.  m.  April  17th,  so  for  the  first 
time  for  two  nights,  they  slept  on  the  ground  in  the 
open  air,  a  new  thing  then,  the  general  rule  thereafter. 

Several  Tuscaloosa  Doctors  were  near  Corinth,  as 
sisting  in  caring  for  the  wounded,  amongst  them  Drs. 
Leland  and  Cochrane.  Even  to  see  so  many  gathered 


8  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

as  in  this  first  army  was  a  new  sight  and  experience  to 
these  raw  troops. 

On  April  23rd  the  battery  was  attached  to  Chal 
mers  Brigade,  and  marched  twelve  miles  over  awful 
roads  of  sticky  mud  and  water  to  Monterey,  where 
everything  was  next  morning  put  in  line  of  battle  but 
the  rifle  and  cannon  firing  was  a  mere  reconnoisance  of 
the  enemy  and  all  hands  bivouaced  in  place  on  the  wet 
ground. 

Here  much  sickness  prevailed  and  the  rains  were 
continuous.  The  hospital  tent  was  soon  filled  and  on 
one  day  Orderly  Sergeant  Little,  out  of  a  roll  of  170 
men  took  to  a  church  in  Corinth  used  as  a  hospital  in 
charge  of  Dr.  N.  P.  Marlowe,  sixty  men  sick.  They 
had  measles,  pneumonia,  erysipelas,  typhoid  fever  and 
chronic  diarrhea.  At  this  evacuation  of  Corinth,  the 
battery  had  barely  enough  men  to  drive  the  horses  and 
Gen.  Chalmers  made  a  detail  from  the  10th  Mississippi 
infantry  to  fill  out  the  company. 

Want  of  vegetable  food,  drinking  water  from  seep 
wells  and  exposure  to  cold  rains  caused  the  sickness. 
It  was  general  in  the  army  and  probably  made  neces 
sary  the  retreat  to  Tupelo  when,  with  better  water,  the 
company  and  army  quickly  secured  usual  health.  The 
evening  of  May  3,  1862  and  that  night  found  company 
under  arms  in  line  of  battle  with  Chalmer's  Brigade, 
but  no  enemy  appeared.  Within  two  weeks  ending  May 
8th,  five  of  the  men  died:  Fulgham,  Hall,  Hyche,  Sims 
and  Lingler.  They  gave  their  lives  to  the  cause. 

To  die  in  hospital  was  harder,  much  harder,  than 
to  die  in  the  excitement  of  battle,  on  the  field.  J.  T. 
Searcy  was  unable  to  walk  from  a  carbuncle  on  his 
knee. 

On  Friday,  May  9th,  one  section  of  two  guns  with 
their  complement  of  men,  having  been  sent  forward  on 
Monterey  road,  at  noon  opened  fire  on  a  considerable 
body  of  Yankee  Infantry  and  a  battery  near  Farming- 
ton.  The  battery  replied  and  a  considerable  duel  was 
fought.  Lumsden  had  no  casualities,  but  did  fine 


LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY 


shooting,  as  scouts  reported,  who  passed  over  ground 
that  had  been  occupied  by  the  enemy,  that  quite  a 
number  of  bodies  were  left  by  them  on  the  field.  This 
was  the  first  time  under  fire  and  their  action  was  com 
mended  by  the  General  in  command.  The  other  sec 
tion  was  on  the  Purdy  road  at  the  time,  but  did  not  get 
engaged. 

On  May  9th,  Friday,  two  new  scouts  reached  the 
battery  from  Tuscaloosa,  Chas.  J.  Fiquet  and  John  Lit 
tle,  the  latter  having  given  up  a  good  position  in  a 
Mississippi  College. 

On  the  8th  a  gentleman  named  Bozeman  came  to 
the  command  and  proved  up  his  son  to  be  a  minor,  thus 
releasing  him  from  service.  The  battery  remained 
near  Tupelo  about  two  months.  Lieutenant  Vaughn 
left  the  battery  here  on  sick  furlough.  On  July  26th 
battery  left  Tupelo  for  Chattanooga,  Tennessee  march 
ing  through  Columbus,  Mississippi,  and  Tuscaloosa, 
Alabama.  On  Sunday,  Aug.  3rd,  at  Columbus  many 
of  the  command  were  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  at 
tend  church  once  more,  in  civilized  fashion,  with 
friends  and  relatives  of  many  of  the  command.  Noth 
ing  was  too  good  to  be  lavished  upon  the  soldier  boys. 
Before  reaching  Columbus,  Gen.  Bragg  in  passing  the 
column  noticed  Lt.  Cribb's  condition;  inquired  about 
him  and  ordered  that  he  report  at  Headquarters  on 
reaching  Columbus.  When  Lt.  Cribbs  did  so,  Gen. 
Bragg  furnished  him  one  of  his  ambulances  and  order 
ed  him  to  Tuscaloosa  ahead,  to  stay  until  recovered. 
John  A.  Caldwell  was  sent  with  him.  He  was  down 
with  camp  fever  for  some  weeks  and  reached  the  bat 
tery  again  near  Cumberland  Gap,  after  the  retreat 
from  Kentucky. 

On  Friday,  Aug.  8th,  the  Battery  reached  Tusca 
loosa  where  it  remained  with  the  home  people  until 
Sunday,  the  16th. 

For  one  week,  they  had  the  freedom  of  the  city 
and  county,  and  were  with  their  families  at  their  own 
homes  for  the  last  time  'till  the  close  of  the  war. 


10  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

Leaving  Tuscaloosa,  Aug.  16th,  for  one  week  they 
were  on  the  road  to  Chattanooga  and  all  sorts  of  a 
time  was  experienced.  Some  "coon  juice"  "tangle 
foot"  was  occasionally  in  evidence  and  caused  some 
exhilaration  and  subsequent  depression  and  some  in 
subordination  temporary.  One  good  man,  the  Captain 
felt  compelled  to  buck  near  Kingston,  Ga.,  and  some  ex 
citement  was  created  among  the  men  thereby.  It  is 
often  hard  for  volunteers  to  submit  to  punishment  of 
that  sort  even  when  deserved,  but  patriotism  prevented 
any  outbreak  among  the  party's  friends. 

Sunday,  August  31st,  found  the  battery  near  a  lit 
tle  town  called  Dunlap,  the  county  seat  of  Sequatchie 
County,  Tennessee,  having  been  crossing  the  Cumber 
land  mountains  for  two  days.  Thence  to  Sparta,  White 
County,  Tennessee  on  Sept.  6th  on  an  air  line  40  miles 
from  Dunlap,  but  much  more  over  the  Cumberland 
mountain  route.  Friday,  Sept.  19th,  found  the  battery 
on  a  hill  overlooking  the  Federal  fort  at  Munfordville, 
Kentucky,  having  marched  from  Sparta  some  120  miles 
during  the  12  preceding  days.  Part  of  time  in  bivouac 
at  Red  Sulphur  Springs,  part  of  the  time  marching, 
drenched  to  the  skin  for  24  hours  at  a  stretch,  passing 
Glasgow  and  Cave  City.  At  midnight  of  Tuesday  the 
16th,  the  Federal  force  in  the  front  surrendered  and  the 
next  day  marched  out  and  surrendered  their  arms, 
with  due  pomp  and  circumstances  of  war,  4200  men 
well  clad  in  new  uniforms  of  blue.  Sergeant  Little 
says,  he  had  the  night  before  one  corn  nubbin  and  that 
day  a  piece  of  pumpkin  of  the  size  of  two  fingers  and 
sat  on  the  fence  eating  it,  while  the  prisoners  stacked 
arms  and  thought  of  the  10th  Satire  of  Juvenal  and  the 
vanity  of  military  glory. 

As  our  General  entered  the  Fort,  he  volunteered 
as  an  aid  to  Gen.  Bragg  and  passed  the  picket  line  and 
seeing  a  box  of  crackers  on  the  side  of  the  hill  resigned 
the  honorary  position  on  the  Staff  and  began  foraging. 
Just  as  he  had  filled  his  haversack,  he  was  halted  by 
a  sentinel  and  told  that  it  was  against  Gen.  Bragg's 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  11 

orders,  whereupon  he  desisted,  but  soon  found  another 
box  and  filled  his  "nose  bag"  with  crackers  and  return 
ed  to  the  battery,  giving  Capt.  Lumsden  and  others  a 
cracker  apiece  until  all  were  exhausted  and  he  then 
distributed  a  handfull  of  crumbs  to  the  rest  of  the  men. 

On  Sept.  22nd  at  Hagonsville,  on  23rd  at  Bards- 
town,  through  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  but 
themselves  out  of  bread  and  living  on  parched  corn. 

There  was  at  Bardstown  a  Catholic  College  and 
some  of  the  men  purchased  here  paper  and  envelopes 
and  Dr.  Little  going  through  the  library  saw  a  volume 
of  Humboldt's  Kasmas  and  on  telling  the  Librarian  that 
he  had  breakfasted  with  Humboldt  in  1858,  at  the  home 
of  the  American  Minister,  Gov.  Wright  of  Indiana,  at 
Berlin,  Prussia,  he  told  him  that  this  was  an  odd  vol 
ume  and  he  could  have  it.  While  reading  it  the  next 
day,  seated  on  the  top  of  a  rail  fence,  he  was  called  off 
suddenly  by  an  order  for  the  battery  to  move  and  the 
battle  of  Perryville  was  on,  after  the  fight  he  returned 
to  look  for  his  book  and  the  fence  had  disappeared  to 
make  a  temporary  breastwork  and  the  ground  was  dis 
figured  by  the  debris  of  battle. 

Battery  remained  in  camp  in  a  beech  grove  for  11 
days  until  Saturday,  Oct.  4th,  and  surely  did  enjoy  the 
rest  and  the  hospitality  of  many  of  the  citizens,  who 
visited  the  camp  daily.  BuelFs  army  was  at  Louisville 
and  to  the  southwest  of  that  city  and  the  close  proxim 
ity  of  the  enemy,  prevented  much  foraging  at  any  dis 
tance  from  camp,  for  there  was  a  liability  of  a  call  to 
arms  at  any  moment.  Yet  some  of  the  available  sup 
plies  of  the  country  fell  to  our  lot,  both  eatable  and 
drinkable.  Frank's  forge  was  kept  busy.  Vandiver 
told  his  yarns  about  his  brother-in-law  in  Arkansas. 
Shepard's  discourses  came  with  heavy  weight  through 
his  ponderous  beard.  Peterson  and  his  crowd  enter 
tained  the  camp  with  music  and  song  describing  how 
"He  sighed  and  she  sighed  and  she  sighed  again  and 
she  fatched  another  sigh  and  her  head,  dropped  in.'1 


12  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

Billy  Buck,  Reuben,  and  Isham  (CaldwelFs  servant) 
cooking  biscuit  and  meat  and  pumpkins. 

Charley  Fiquet  and  others  watching  the  cooking 
wistfully,  a  little  having  to  go  a  long  ways.  All  these 
remembrances  of  the  camp  near  Bardstown  pass  in  re 
view,  and  then  it  is  remembered  that  we  had  a  foot 
deep  of  wheat  straw,  between  our  bodies  and  the  wet 
earth,  under  the  stretched  blanket  or  tarpaulin.  All 
this  while  the  regular  military  duties,  to  care  for  man 
and  beast  go  forward  in  regular  routine,  and  all  ready 
at  a  monment's  notice  to  be  rushed  into  line  of  battle  at 
at  some  indicated  move  of  the  enemy. 

On  Oct.  4th  leaving  vicinity  of  Bradstown,  the 
battery  passed  through  Springfield,  just  as  citizens 
were  leaving  church  on  the  5th  Sunday,  and  on  the  6th 
passed  through  Perryville  and  on  to  within  a  mile  of 
Harrodsburg  and  bivouaced  for  the  night. 

On  Tuesday  7th,  the  command  retraced  its  march 
back  to  within  two  miles  of  Perryville,  sleeping  at  their 
guns  during  the  night. 

Next  morning  Lumsden's  and  Selden's  (Mont 
gomery,  Alabama)  Batteries  opened  the  fight  in  a 
duel  with  two  Yankee  batteries,  Lumsden  going  for 
ward  into  the  battle  and  unlimbering  under  fire  of  the 
enemy,  losing  one  horse  from  the  fourth  gun. 

The  fighting  was  severe  during  two  hours,  4:00  p. 
m.  to  dark.  Sims  and  another  man  were  wounded  in 
the  head  by  pieces  of  shell  and  Goodwyn  by  rifle  ball. 
The  4th  piece  was  dismounted  and  two  more  horses 
killed,  then  our  infantry  charged  and  drove  the  enemy 
for  two  miles  with  considerable  loss  to  the  Federals. 

The  battery  fired  about  2000  rounds,  the  distance 
being  about  one  half  mile  and  after  the  battle,  the  bat 
tery  opposing  us  was  seen  knocked  all  to  pieces,  horses 
piled  up  and  haversacks  and  canteens  strewn  over 
the  ground,  while  in  rear  was  a  long  line  of  knapsacks 
and  overcoats  laid  down  by  the  infantry  before  going 
into  battle  and  left  in  their  hurried  retreat.  Many  of 
Our  men  secured  blue  overcoats  which  they  wore  until 


LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY  13 


the  close  of  the  war.  Sergt.  Little  says  he  saw  a  thou 
sand  of  them  but  never  thought  of  securing  any  booty, 
but  that  night  as  it  was  very  cold,  paid  a  member  of 
the  company  $7.00  for  one  which  he  wore  until  it  was 
shot  off  him  at  Nashville. 

Eventually  Yankees  fell  back  nine  miles.  The 
ground  was  strewed  with  Yankee  dead,  overcoats,  can 
teens,  muskets  etc.  Lumsden  got  wheels  from  Cap 
tain  Greene  to  fix  up  the  dismounted  gun  and  remained 
in  field  until  noon  the  next  day.  This  was  Lumsden's 
first  battle  with  the  whole  battery.  Leaving  battle 
field  about  noon  next  day,  the  battery  passed  through 
Harrodsburg  and  on  Sunday  the  12th  passed  Camp 
Dick  Robinson  and  on  through  Lancaster  on  the  13th 
toward  Chab  Orchard,  the  army  retreating  through 
Cumberland  Gap,  via  Wild  Cat,  through  a  very  poor 
and  thinly  settled  country,  mostly  mountains.  Troops 
lived  on  parched  corn  and  beef  broiled  on  coals  with 
out  salt. 

Private  Kahnweiler  was  left  sick  at  Munfordville, 
Sergt.  James  Cardell,  at  Harrodsburg.  Private  Wool- 
ey  and  Bates  missing  after  Perryville,  supposed  to 
have  been  killed. 

At  Camp  Dick  Robinson,  we  buried  some  cannons 
in  an  apple  orchard  inscribed  with  Spanish  to  prevent 
the  Yankees  getting  them.  Here  were  4000  barrels 
of  pork,  that  had  been  collected  from  the  country  and 
a  good  many  barrels  of  whiskey,  for  which  there  was 
no  transportation  and  they  were  burned.  Bushwhack 
ers  lined  the  route  to  Cumberland  Gap  and  it  was  not 
safe  to  get  away  from  the  main  road. 

Near  Knoxville  on  Saturday,  Oct.  25th,  members 
of  the  company  who  had  been  left  behind  sick  at  com 
mencement  of  the  Kentucky  campaign  rejoined  the 
company.  Letters  from  home,  decent  clothing  and 
more  rations  made  the  men  feel  better,  yet  still  clothing 
was  too  thin  for  on  Oct.  26th  the  whole  army  found  it 
self  covered  with  a  blanket  of  snow  about  daylight 
which  continued  to  fall  the  entire  day.  At  Knoxville, 


14  LUHSDEN'S  BATTERY 

Dr.  Moore  of  the  company  died  as  also  Dr.;  Jarrett's 
negro  man  Wash.  Henry  Donoho  rejoined  command. 
Ed  King  was  left  at  Knoxville  sick  and  Brown  was 
transferred  to  the  Ordnance  Department. 

Nov.  9th  found  battery  again  at  Dunlap,  Tenn., 
whence  it  went  to  Shelbyville  by  the  25th. 

On  Thursday,  Nov.  27th,  Sergt.  Horace  Martin  was 
detailed  to  go  to  Tuscaloosa  to  obtain  clothing  for  the 
company.  Lt.  Eb  Hargrove  left  same  day  on  furlough. 
Friday,  Dec.  5th,  it  was  snowing  heavily,  but  the  orders 
were  received  to  cook  two  day's  rations  and  be  ready 
to  move  by  12:00  o'clock  but  weather  proved  too  bad 
for  any  movement. 

On  Dec.  7th  John  F.  Tarrant  go  his  discharge  for 
disability.  Left  Shelbyville  on  Dec.  7th,  travelled 
pike  6  or  8  miles  and  bivouaced  for  night.  A  stable 
made  quite  comfortable  quarters  for  as  many  as  it 
would  hold.  On  Monday  marched  through  Unionville 
to  one  and  a  half  miles  from  Eaglesville  and  camped. 
Friday,  Dec.  20th,  Eaglesville  to  Murfreesboro,  joining 
again  Reserve  Battalion  and  meeting  Wick  Brown  just 
arrived  with  three  boxes  of  goods  from  Tuscaloosa, 
bringing  something  for  nearly  everybody. 

On  Dec.  28th  Capt.  Lumsden  started  for  Richmond, 
Va.,  sick,  taking  Corporal  Sheperd  with  him.  Lt.  Cribbs 
was  left  in  charge  of  the  reserve  artillery,  and  Lt.  Ed 
Tarrant  in  command  of  the  Battery. 

On  Dec.  30th  the  rifle  section  was  ordered  to  re 
port  to  Gen.  Breckenridge  on  the  extreme  right  of  the 
army,  facing  the  enemy  on  Stone  River  north  of  Mur 
freesboro.  The  other  section  was  in  position  in  yard  of 
Mr.  Spence's  negro  quarters  but  was  moved  nearer  to 
the  enemy  later  in  the  afternoon  where  it  remained  all 
next  day,  the  31st  of  Dec.,  1862. 

Murfreesboro 

Dec.  31,  1862,  most  of  the  fighting  was  on  the  left 
wing  when  our  forces  drove  the  Federals  back  several 
miles. 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  15 

The  battery  was  first  stationed  on  the  right,  near 
a  vacated  house  on  a  hill.  Here  we  found  a  barrel 
partly  full  of  seconds  unbolted  wheat  flour  and  a 
skillet  and  we  made  up  some  biscuit  and  after  the  first 
batch  was  cooked,  the  order  came  to  move  and  we 
wrapped  up  the  dough  in  a  cloth  and  that  night  after 
crossing  Stone  River  and  throwing  up  some  breast 
works  we  cooked  the  balance  on  the  shovels  we  had 
used  for  ditching. 

The  battery  was  in  an  open  field,  in  front  of  a 
large  brick  house  on  a  high  hill  where  Rosecrang  had 
massed  his  batteries  after  his  right  had  been  driven 
back  to  a  right  angle  with  its  first  position.  This  was  a 
pivotal  position  and  the  point  where  the  General  is 
said  to  have  remarked  after  his  first  day's  disaster, 
"Bragg  is  a  good  dog,  but  Holdfast  is  better."  Breck- 
enridge  made  an  attack  on  this  position  and  as  he  rode 
into  the  fight,  I  thought  him  the  finest  looking  man  I 
had  ever  seen  on  horseback.  But  the  position  was  too 
strong  to  be  taken,  although  Bragg  was  in  person  on 
the  field  not  far  from  us.  That  night  at  mid-night,  the 
order  came  to  hitch  up  and  leave.  One  of  the  drivers 
reported  that  the  horses  hitched  to  the  pole  of  one  of 
the  caissons,  had  eaten  off  about  three  feet  of  the  sea 
soned  oak  pole.  I  told  him  to  tie  an  extra  pole  under 
the  one  gnawed  to  a  point  with  the  halters  from  the 
horses  and  we  marched  off  in  retreat.  The  horses 
were  almost  starved  as  well  as  the  men.  After  going 
a  little  way  on  the  pike,  the  column  halted  and  the  men 
marched  by  barefooted  some  of  them  on  the  frozen 
pike,  while  we  built  up  a  fire  and  Sergt.  Hargrove, 
standing  in  front  of  it,  had  half  the  tail  of  his  overcoat 
burned  off  before  the  warmth  reached  his  skin. 

Marching  all  night,  we  met  Dr.  Leland  next  morn 
ing,  muddy  as  if  he  had  been  on  a  fox  hunt  in  "Bear 
Heaven"  and  Jim  Craddock,  a  noted  dude,  with  his 
coat  neatly  buttoned  and  his  collar  clean.  He  was 
said  to  sleep  lying  on  his  back  in  a  tent  with  ten  or  a 
dozen  men,  and  never  turned  or  moved  lest  he  should 


16  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

disorder  his  clothing.  But  he  was  a  brave  soldier. 
Lt.  Cribbs  had  his  horse  killed  and  several  from  the 
battery  were  lost  here,  the  breastworks  were  nothing 
but  rail  piles  from  an  old  fence. 

For  three  days  after  the  two  armies  faced  each 
other  and  on  the  night  of  Jan.  3,  1863,  Bragg's  army 
retreated. 

On  Jan.  4th  Confederate  scouts  went  six  miles 
north  of  Murfreesboro  beyond  the  battle  field  but 
found  no  enemy.  Both  armies  had  retreated.  In  the 
evening  of  the  4th  Federals  began  to  advance,  slowly 
feeling  their  way.  Corporal  James  T.  Searcy  remain 
ed  a  prisoner  at  Murfreesboro  to  attend  to  wants  of  his 
brother  Reuben,  fatally  wounded  and  left  in  hospital. 
He  was  exchanged  at  City  Point  near  Petersburg,  Va., 
April  12,  1863,  and  reached  the  battery  at  Estelle 
Springs,  Tenn.,  on  April  20th. 

The  reserve  artillery  encamped  here  until  spring 
under  Major  Felix  H.  Robertson.  He  kept  all  hands 
busy  from  early  morn  till  dewy  eve,  policing  camp 
when  not  engaged  in  drill.  Evidently  he  believed  that 
"Satin  finds  some  mischief  still  for  idle  hands  to  do." 
Friends  and  acquaintances  from  Tuscaloosa  were  on 
hand  often  during  spring  and  boxes  of  supplies  had 
been  frequent  arrivals. 

May  14,  1863,  on  Thursday  night  orders  came 
for  2  day's  rations  to  be  cooked  up  and  to  be  ready 
to  move  by  6  :00  a.  m.  Friday. 

We  moved  out  through  Tullahoma  and  Roseland 
and  camped  four  miles  from  Shelbyville  and  ordered 
to  clear  ground  for  our  pack  of  artillery.  Remained 
till  June  5th,  ordered  to  report  to  Gen  Clayton's  Bri 
gade.  Two  days  march  in  mud  and  rain  toward  Mur 
freesboro,  was  the  sum  total  of  our  service  with  him 
for  on  Saturday  night,  June  6th,  we  were  back  with  the 
Reserve  Artillery  again.  Some  of  our  men  were  great 
hunters  and  when  Shuttlesworth  caught  an  old  coon 
with  her  litter  of  young  ones,  he  gave  a  feast  to  his 
friends.  Lt.  Tarrant  resigned,  returned  to  Tuscaloosa 


LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY  17 


and  raised  another  Artillery  company  of  which  he  be 
came  captain  and  Sette  Shepherd  as  Lieutenant  and 
Wm.  Tarrant  also. 

On  June  26th  Battery  marched  to  Tullahoma  and 
was  unlimbered  in  battery  as  if  for  a  fight  with  2nd 
section  in  a  fort  but  on  Tuesday,  the  30th,  took  line  of 
march  for  the  Cumberland  mountains  through  rain  and 
mud  through  Alezonia  to  Decherd  where  guns  and  am 
munition  boxes  were  put  on  train  wagons  and  carriages 
marched  toward  Sewanee  or  the  University  of  the 
South.  On  July  5th,  crossed  Tennessee  river  on  pon 
toon  bridge  after  a  weary  march  over  hills  and  moun 
tains  through  mud  and  rain.  July  7th,  Tuesday,  Corp. 
Searcy  was  appointed  Sergeant  Major  of  Battalion  thus 
removing  him  from  the  company. 

Lt.  Cribbs  returned  from  Tuscaloosa  on  Friday 
night,  July  10th,  with  a  lot  of  supplies  for  the  company, 
which  he  found  at  the  foot  of  Lookout  mountain  near 
Chattanooga,  we  remained  till  Sept.  10th,  and  then 
were  assigned  to  Breckenridge's  Division  for  a  week 
just  arrived  from  Mississippi  minus  artillery.  On  Sept. 
16th,  again  with  Reserve  near  Lafayette.  The  two 
armies  were  on  the  move,  maneuvering  for  position, 
culminated  in  battle  of  Chickamauga,  Sept.  20,  1863. 

The  whole  army  itching  for  a  fight,  while  en 
camped  at  Tullahoma  an  examining  board  had  been 
appointed  for  Artillery  officers  for  service  in  the  Ord 
nance  Department  consisting  of  Col.  Wm.  Leroy 
Brown  of  the  Richmond  Arsenal;  Col.  H.  Oladowski, 
Chief  of  Ordnance  of  Bragg's  army  and  Lt.  Col.  James 
H.  Kennard,  Chief  of  Ordnance  Officer  Hardee's 
Corps.  Orderly  Sergeant  Little  went  before  this 
Board  on  Wednesday  for  the  Lieutenant's  examination 
and  on  Friday  for  that  of  Captain  and  having  made  the 
highest  average  in  either  the  army  of  Tennessee  or  that 
of  Virginia  was  ordered  to  report  for  duty  at  the  C.  S. 
Central  Laboratory  at  Macon,  Ga.,  to  Lt.  Col  John  Wil 
liam  Mallett,  Superintendent  of  Laboratories.  He  re 
mained  there  until  he  knew  the  battle  was  imminent  at 


18  LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY 


Chickamauga  and  applied  for  and  secured  a  four  day's 
leave  of  absence  to  join  Lumsden's  Battery,  which  he 
learned  at  Gen.  Bragg's  headquarters  was  some  twenty 
miles  distance  at  Lafayette.  Col  Hallonquist  was  then 
Chief  of  Artillery  and  offered  him  the  command  of  Gas- 
kin's  Battery  from  Brookhaven,  Mississippi,  whose  Cap 
tain  was  absent  on  sick  leave.  With  the  consent  of  the 
Lieutenants,  he  accepted  this  proposition  and  took 
charge  of  this  Battery  during  the  battle  of  Chickamau 
ga  under  Major  Gen.  W.  H.  Walker  who  was  killed  at 
Atlanta  on  duty  and  was  assigned  to  Gen.  Bragg's  staff 
as  assistant  to  the  chief  of  Ordnance  and  afterwards 
served  as  Ordnance  Officer  of  Clayton's  Brigade,  then 
of  the  Division  of  Cleburne,  Bate,  Brown  Chetham, 
and  of  the  corps  of  D.  H.  Hill,  Breckenridge  andHardee 
and  after  a  temporary  command  of  the  University  of 
Alabama  section  of  artillery  during  Wilson's  raid  into 
Alabama,  closed  his  service  with  Gen.  Howell  Cobb  at 
Macon,  Ga.,  having  been  in  meantime  assigned  to  duty 
as  Chief  of  Ordnance  Officer  as  Lt.  Col.  of  Artillery, 
of  Hardee's  Corps  army  of  Tennessee.  During  the  battle 
of  Chickamauga  Lumsden  had  one  private— Screniver— 
killed,  several  wounded,  one  gun  dismounted  and  tem 
porarily  captured.  Several  men  captured,  among 
them  Chas.  Jerome  Fiquet,  Jr.  The  gun  was  recovered 
next  day,  but  was  replaced  by  a  better  one  captured 
from  the  enemy,  with  which  Sept.  25th  they  kept  up  a 
slow  fire  on  the  enemies  breastworks  at  Chattanooga. 
The  battery  was  soon  withdrawn  from  the  besieg 
ing  lines  and  joined  the  camp  of  Robertson's  Battalion 
at  the  foot  of  Lookout  mountain,  reporting  to  Gen. 
Longstreet.  Here  about  Oct.  15,  1863,  the  battery  re 
ceived  a  recruit  in  the  person  of  James  R.  Maxwell. 
He  had  since  April  1,  1862,  been  serving  as  a  cadet 
from  University  of  Alabama  Corps  drill  master  with  the 
34th  Alabama  Regiment  of  Infantry,  Col.  J.  C.  B. 
Mitchell  but  on  the  rolls  of  company  C.  of  said  Regi 
ment  as  a  private.  He  obtained  a  transfer  and  report 
ed  for  duty  to  Capt.  Lumsden  at  this  place.  Prior  to  this 


LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY  ,  19 

date  these  reminiscences  have  been  written  up  from  a 
diary  kept  by  Sergeant  Major  James  T.  Searcy,  up  to 
July  24,  1863,  date  of  last  entry,  finishing  up  the  Tulla- 
homa  campaign  of  the  spring  of  1863  and  from  a  few 
of  Mr.  Searcy's  letters  home  thereafter.  The  succeed 
ing  pages,  covering  the  services  and  camp  incidents  of 
the  command  are  written  entirely  from  memory  by  the 
author.  Dates  verified  as  far  as  possible  from  official 
records.  On  being  transferred  to  this  command,  I  had 
with  me  a  negro  body  servant  named  Jim  Bobbett,  tak 
en  from  my  father's  plantation,  whence  he  left  a  wife, 
but  no  children.  He  was  allowed  to  come  at  his  own 
request,  and  had  been  with  me  from  the  time  I  entered 
service  as  drill  master  of  the  34th  Alabama.  There 
were  perhaps  a  dozen  or  more  servants  connected  with 
the  Battery,  some  belonging  to  commissioned  officers, 
others  to  privates,  all  subject  to  their  master's  orders, 
but  of  course  subject  to  control  by  the  officers  of  the 
company  also.  Without  any  legislation  or  orders  of 
army  commanders,  such  servents  were  part  and  parcel 
of  the  commands  to  which  their  owners  belonged,  and 
cheerfully  did  their  part  in  connection  with  the  com 
missaries  of  their  commands,  being  utilized  largely  as 
company  cooks.  For  such  service  they  were  welcomed 
by  the  commisary  department  and  got  their  share 
of  the  rations,  but  I  do  not  think  they  were  ever  enroll 
ed,  as  a  matter  of  record.  Their  masters  wanted  them, 
and  the  hardships  of  a  soldier's  life  were  very  much 
ameliorated  by  them.  As  a  rule  they  were  liked  by 
all,  and  were  glad  to  assist  any  and  all  soldiers  for 
small  rewards  and  even  for  personal  thanks.  They 
were  great  foragers,  for  their  masters  first,  and  next 
for  their  own  and  their  master's  friends.  The  officers 
at  this  time  where  Capt.  Chas.  L.  Lumsden  and  Second 
Lt.  A.  C.  Hargrove,  Lt.  H.  H.  Cribbs  was  at  home  sick 
And  soon  afterwards  resigned.  The  weather  was 
stormy,  rains  came  in  deluges  and  bridges  between 
camp  and  Chickamauga  station  were  washed  away, 
cutting  off  our  supplies.  Forage  getting  short,  Capt. 


20-  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

Lumsden  detailed  perhaps  20  men  to  go  on  horses  over 
into  Wills  Valley  to  the  west  of  Lookout  mountain. 
The  road  to  be  traveled  was  the  dirt  road  skirting  the 
base  of  the  cliff  about  half  way  up  the  mountain,  above 
the  Tennessee  river  opposite  the  Moccasin  bend.  The 
Federals  had  a  battery  entrenched  on  Moccasin  Point, 
just  across  the  river.  The  detail  left  before  day  and 
passed  the  danger  point  before  it  was  light  enough  to 
be  seen.  By  mid-day  sufficient  forage  of  corn  and 
fodder  had  been  obtained.  Each  horse  and  mule  re 
sembled  a  perambulating  haystack,  for  it  was  loaded 
with  two  big  sacks  filled  with  corn  on  each  side  and  as 
many  bundles  of  fodder  as  could  be  tied  on  with  ropes. 
Sergeant  John  Little  had  charge  of  the  squad, 
containing  among  others  Alex  Bearing,  Ed  King,  Rufe 
Prince,  Dave  Jones  and  other  names  not  remembered. 
It  was  a  sort  of  picnic.  The  men  bought  chicken,  but 
ter  and  butter  milk  and  got  the  farmers  women  to  cook 
for  them.  Dave  Jones  bought  a  bee  gum  of  honey  and 
had  a  time  getting  out  the  honey,  with  all  the  crowd  as 
sisting.  Then  again  it  was  good  for  sore  eyes  to  loaf 
around  in  a  farmer's  front  yard  and  his  door  steps  and 
see  his  wife  and  daughters  flitting  about,  and  every 
now  and  then  get  to  talk  to  them  a  little.  Calico  dress 
es  and  sun  bonnets  perhaps,  but  they  were  a  treat  to  the 
soldiers,  who  were  tired  of  seeing  nothing  but  men  for 
so  long.  The  detail  put  off  having  to  pass  the  front 
of  that  battery  so  long  as  they  could  and  had  their 
frolic  out.  But  they  had  to  pass  that  point  in  daylight, 
in  order  to  have  time  to  get  over  the  balance  of  that 
mountain  road,  with  each  animal  loaded  in  the  manner 
it  was.  There  was  no  way  of  dodging  it.  There  were 
rocks  and  woods  and  cuts  in  the  road,  that  would  pro 
tect  on  each  side,  but  sight  in  front  of  the  battery  for 
perhaps  forty  yards  or  more  on  the  road  was  cut  out  of 
the  precipice,  and  for  that  distance  it  was  a  "run  of  the 
gauntlet."  Arriving  at  the  place,  the  men  crowded  the 
cut  on  the  west  side  of  each  man  on  his  animal  made 
ready  and  as  his  name  was  called,  at  perhaps  30  yards 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  21 

interval,  he  made  his  rush  as  fast  as  he  could  persuade 
his  animal  to  go. 

The  enemy  could  only  take  pot  shots  at  one  ani 
mal  and  not  at  a  crowd.  Those  Yankees  surely  had 
sport,  but  they  did  not  get  to  fire  each  of  their  four 
guns  many  times  before  all  were  past  the  bald  place 
without  the  loss  of  man  or  animal.  They  yelled  and  we 
yelled  back  that  they  could  not  shoot  worth  "shucks." 
They  shelled  the  woods  along  the  route,  but  our  men 
were  out  of  sight  and  did  not  tarry  till  each  reached 
some  cover,  when  he  halted  for  them  to  ease  up,  which 
they  soon  did  not  being  able  to  see  anything  to  shoot 
at.  They  had  their  fun  target  shooting.  Our  boys  had 
the  fun  of  dodging.  As  there  were  no  casualities-,  it 
could  always  be  looked  back  upon,  with  a  sportsman 
point  of  view,  as  one  of  our  funny  episodes.  A  few 
days  thereafter  camp  was  moved  over  beyond  the  top 
of  Missionary  Ridge,  about  Oct.  23rd  into  a  woodland 
location,  with  plenty  of  spring  and  creek  water  nearby. 
To  soldiers  in  camp  a  living  spring  was  a  blessing,  as  it 
was  the  only  securety  against  contamination  and  con 
sequent  disease. 

Supposing  the  camp  might  turn  out  to  be  winter 
quarters,  a  long  shelter  was  built  to  cover  about  100 
horses,  with  troughs  made  from  hollow  logs  and  racks 
for  long  forage.  The  men  began  to  arrange  them 
selves  in  congenial  "messes"  and  to  build  pole  cabins 
with  fire  places  of  sticks  and  mud  plaster,  and  "bunks." 

At  the  camp  a  lot  of  boxes  of  provisions  and  cloth 
ing  arrived  in  charge  of  Mrs.  Jane  Durrett  from  Tus- 
caloosa  for  different  Tuscaloosa  boys.  This  good  pa 
triotic  lady  would  leave  her  home  and  husband  on  a 
Tuscaloosa  County  farm  and  take  charge  of  batches  of 
supplies,  provisions,  clothing,  etc.,  for  officers  or  men. 
She  saw  to  it  ,  that  every  box  was  delivered  to  the  sol 
dier  to  whom  it  was  sent.  No  man  could  have  done 
this  work  as  she  did  it.  Neither  the  pompous  little 
Lieutenant  in  charge  of  a  provost  guard,  nor  train 
guard,  nor  commanders  of  posts,  nor  the  General  in 


22  LUMSDEN'S  BATTEDY 

command  of  an  army  had  any  terrors  for  her.  They 
were  all  means  to  be  lent  to  the  service  that  she  was  on. 
In  the  car,  where  her  boxes  went,  she  went,  when  she 
got  with  them,  as  far  as  railroad  could  carry  her  goods, 
her  quick  Irish  wit  and  flattering  tongue  would  soon 
get  an  order  from  some  competent  artillery  for  wagons 
and  drivers  and  an  ambulance  for1  herself,  to  take  her 
goods  to  their  destination,  and  she  delivered  them  in 
person  to  whomsoever  they  had  been  sent,  officers  or 
privates.  She  served  one  equally  as  heartily  as  the 
other.  Of  course  she  had  to  rough  it,  and  see  much 
hardship  and  exposure,  but  she  gloried  in  so  serving 
her  country,  she  had  several  sons  in  the  army  doing 
their  duty  also,  as  became  men  from  such  stock.  Jim 
Bobbett,  my  body  servant,  Rube,  Alex  Bearing's  man 
and  some  of  the  other  company  darkies  had  also  been 
south  on  the  railroad  looking  out  for  supplies.  Our 
messenger  got  a  big  fat  gobbler,  we  cooked  him  in  a 
big  three  legged  cast  iron  wash  pot.  Mr.  Menander 
Rosser  reminds  me  that  Dr.  James  T.  Searcy,  (now 
Superintendent  of  the  Alabama  Bryce  Hospital  for  the 
Insane)  was  boss  of  that  job,  he  put  in  good  time  for 
some  days  previous  to  the  feast  in  stuffing  corn  meal 
dough  down  that  turkey's  throat,  to  make  sure  of  his 
being  good  and  fat  at  the  proper  time.  Can  you  see 
the  picture,  Searcy  on  a  log,  gobbler  between  his  knees, 
left  forefinger  and  thumb  prying  open  the  gobbler's 
mouth,  while  the  balance  of  his  left  hand  kept  the 
neck  straight  up ;  right  hand  rolling  up  enormous  bread 
pills  and  forcing  them  into  the  gobbler's  mouth,  and 
manipulating  them  down  to  the  craw.  Henry  Donoho 
holding  the  bread  pan  assisting  in  rolling  the  pills. 
Several  others  of  the  mess,  much  interested  in  the 
operation,  scattered  around.  We  first  parboiled  him 
till  nearly  tender,  with  an  oven  lid  covering  the  pot. 
Then  we  filled  him  with  biscuit  and  hard-tack  crumbs 
and  pieces  of  fat  bacon,  and  cut  onions  and  sage  and 
the  chopped  gizzard  and  liver,  all  mixed;  boiling  down 
the  water  meanwhile  to  a  rich  gravy.  Then  we  put 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


the  stuffed  turkey  in  again,  put  on  the  cast  oven  lid 
heaping  red  hot  oak  and  hickory  coals  on  top  and  un 
der  the  pot.  If  the  reader  knows  something  about 
cooking,  it  is  plain  that  this  gobbler  was  cooked  to  a 
delightful  brown,  brown  all  over,  with  the  juice  oozing 
out  of  his  skin.  And  that  turkey  was  not  all  of  that 
dinner.  Out  of  the  boxes  from  home  came  material 
for  mashed  potatoes,  boiled  rice,  cowpeas,  bread  and 
biscuit  and  butter^  and  dried  peaches  for  a  big  "biled 
cat"  for  dessert  with  butter  and  brown  sugar  for  sauce. 
"Biled  Cat"!  Eat  "Biled  Cat!"  Yes,  indeed!  Sol 
diers  thought  "biled  cat"  good  enough  for  any  body. 
Its  composition  was  biscuit  dough,  rolled  out  into  a 
sheet  one-fourth  of  an  inch  thick,  spread  with  stewed 
dried  apples  or  peaches,  seasoned  with  sugar  and  spice 
and  everything  nice,  to  another  half  inch  in  thickness; 
rolled  up  into  a  long  roll  and  then  rolled  up  in  a  clean 
towel  or  flour  sack,  tied  up  and  dropped  into  a  pot  of 
boiling  water  and  boiled  until  done.  When  done  the 
cloth  unrolled  and  the  contents  cut  into  sections  one- 
half  an  inch  thick  and  deluged  with  "butter  and  sugar" 
sauce,  it  delightfully  filled  all  the  spaces  and>  perhaps 
somewhat  distended  a  Confederate  soldier's  stomach, 
who  had  already  enjoyed  a  real  good  turkey  and  fix 
ings  dinner.  What  a  change  that  was  from  the  regu 
lar  daily  diet  of  corn  pone  and  rancid  bacon,  boiled 
with  cowpeas  containing  about  three  black  weevils  to 
the  pea.  As  some  declared  most  of  the  peas  were  al 
ready  seasoned  enough  without  any  bacon.  At  such 
times  soldiers  would  live  lavishly.  They  knew,  "we 
are  here  today,  where  we  shall  be  tomorrow,  no  one 
can  tell."  We  enjoyed  our  good  things  while  we  could. 
When  they  were  gone,  we  would  get  back  to  corn- 
bread  and  bacon  or  beef  hash  or  boiled  beef  as  best  we 
could,  and  very  often  the  transition  "was  awful  sud 
den."  In  winter  quarters,  we  might  be  saving,  and 
make  good  things  last  as  long  as  possible  but  in  inter 
vals  of  a  campaign,  we  would  live  whilst  we  could  and 
"take  no  thought  for  the  morrow." 


24  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

While  on  the  subject  of  "grub,"  who  of  us  does  not 
think  of  our  efficient  "boss"  cook,  Tom  Potts?  Can 
not  each  of  us  see  him  now  in  this  camp  behind  Mis 
sionary  Ridge.  There  he  sits  day  and  night  (except 
perhaps  9:00  or  10.00  p.  m.  to  3:00  a.  m.  when  he 
sleeps)  in  his  split  bottom  chair,  in  front  of  the  center 
pole  of  his  tent.  Behind  him  his  wall  tent,  each  side 
piled  up  with  boxes  and  barrels  and  sacks  of  meal, 
flour,  salt,  sugar,  bacon,  the  only  man  in  camp  who  al 
ways  has  a  good  tent  because  it  is  absolutely  a  necessi 
ty.  A  tall,  slouch-shouldered  man,  wide  brim  felt  hat, 
black  hair  almost  to  his  shoulders,  complexion  very 
dark,  long  black  moustache  and  whiskers  and  etern 
ally,  when  awake,  a  big  black  meershaum  in  his  mouth, 
puffing  away.  Very  quiet,  slow  soft  spon,  he  occa 
sionally  gives  some  directions  about  the  cooking  to  the 
negroes  and  to  the  white  soldiers  detailed  to  cook. 
He  is  nothing  of  a  hustler,  but  he  has  directed  negroes 
from  his  boyhood  up  and  is  as  efficient  a  "boss  cook" 
as  the  army  contained  without  any  bluster.  Six  or 
eight  feet  in  front  of  him,  a  big  hickory  oak  fire,  say 
ten  feet  long,  with  glowing  coals  under  the  logs,  skil 
lets,  ovens  and  pots  all  occupied  in  baking  bread  or 
boiling  beef  under  the  hands  of  the  negro  men,  who 
delighted  in  the  work  and  joke  and  grin  and  laugh  or 
jump  out  and  dance  part  of  a  jig,  whilst  another  claps 
his  hands  and  pats  knees  for  the  music.  Occasionally 
Potts  may  quietly  say  to  his  negro  man.  "Jim"  I  wish 
you  would  hand  me  a  cup  of  water."  He  keeps 
his  seat,  drinks,  hands  back  the  cup  and  goes  on  smok 
ing.  No  man  in  the  army  has  a  better  colored  meer- 
sehoum.  On  the  march  or  while  the  army  was  in  the 
trenches,  rations  are  issued,  cooked,  the  bread  being 
baked  and  the  beef  boiled,  bacon  or  salt  pork  is  is 
sued  raw,  the  soldiers  eating  it  raw,  or  boiled  on  coals, 
if  convenient  and  the  meat  not  too  scant.  In  perman 
ent  camp,  the  soldiers  drew  the  rations  raw  or  cooked 
as  they  preferred  almost  always  each  mess  preferred  to 
do  its  own  cooking.  With  us  confederates,  bread  was 


LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY  25 

mostly  corn  pone,  sometimes  biscuits,  sometimes 
hard  -  tack.  Cold  cornbread  or  hard  -  tack  crum 
bled  into  a  tin  can  and  boiled  with  perhaps  a  few 
scraps  of  meat  was  "cush"  and  "cush"  tasted  good, 
hot  off  the  coals,  after  a  hard  day's  march  or  fighting. 

The  writers  opinion  is  that  the  word  comes  from 
Louisana  where  now  the  Creole  French  takes  his  turn 
of  corn  to  mill  and  has  it  ground  into  what  the  Ameri 
can  calls  "grits,"  but  the  Frenchman  of  Louisana,  calls 
it  "cous  cous." 

At  one  time  the  Confederate  government  experi 
mented  with  a  mixture  of  cowpea  flour  and  wheat 
flour,  for  the  making  of  a  nourishing  hard  tack. 
Doubtless  it  was  nourishing  enough,  when  there  was 
plenty  of  time  to  boil  them  soft  enough  to  eat,  but 
most  men's  teeth  were  not  able  to  grind  them.  It  took 
a  hatchet  of  ax  to  break  them  up  and  the  broken  pieces 
resembled  shiny  pieces  of  flint  rock.  They  were  not 
so  great  a  success  for  the  soldier  on  the  march  as  the 
inventor  expected.  Every  day  some  of  the  officers  and 
men  would  get  permission  to  go  to  the  top  of  the  Ridge, 
visiting  friends,  in  different  commands,  on  the  lines 
facing  Chattanooga,  so  we  kept  in  touch  with  what 
could  be  seen  and  heard  of  the  situation.  At  the  dis 
tance,  the  Yanks  could  be  seen  moving  about  in  Chatta 
nooga  like  ants  in  a  hill  and  just  about  as  much  could 
be  told  as  to  what  they  were  doing,  as  could  be  told  by 
a  man  watching  the  doings  of  ants  at  a  distance  that 
will  barely  allow  them  to  be  distinguished. 

Soon  after  our  big  dinner,  Major  Robertson  or 
dered  Capt.  Lumsden  and  one  of  the  other  batteries  to 
be  ready  to  march  at  dusk,  taking  only  the  gun  de 
tachment  and  guns  with  their  carriages,  leaving  the 
caissons  in  camp  with  their  horses  and  drivers. 

These  two  companies  were  led  during  the  night 
by  a  guide  to  the  Tennessee  river  at  a  point  a  few 
miles  above  Chattanooga,  with  all  hands  warned  not  to 
speak  above  a  whisper  and  to  prevent  all  noise  of 
movement  possible  and  placed  in  position,  along  an 


2.6  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

open  field,  on  top  of  bank  of  river,  between  midnight 
and  day,  with  the  information  that  a  Federal  command 
was  just  across  the  river  in  camp  and  only  picketing 
confederate  soldiers  along  our  bank.  So  we  lay,  wait 
ing  for  daylight,  some  sleeping,  some  chatting  in  whis 
pers,  in  as  comfortable  position  as  the  ground  afforded. 

Just  before  daylight  orders  were  passed  around 
to  get  "into  battery",  with  connoneers  at  posts  and  to 
load  with  shells,  with  fuses  cut  to  200  yards  (point 
blank  range)  and  when  ordered  to  fire,  to  continue  to 
load  and  fire  till  ordered  to  cease  firing  and  move 
away. 

Major  Robertson  sat  his  horse  at  a  point  where  he 
had  previously  been  in  daylight,  from  which  he  knew 
he  could  get  the  first  glimpse  of  the  Yankee  camp  op 
posite,  when  it  should  be  light  enough.  The  other  offi 
cers  all  on  their  horses  in  their  proper  positions  in  each 
battery,  all  drivers  mounted  and  cannoneers  at  post, 
with  guns  loaded  and  primers  stuck  in  the  gun  vents, 
lanjords  in  the  hands  of  No.  4  cannoneer.  From  across 
the  river  the  Yankee  bugle  rank  out  with  the  "reveille", 
call  and  instantly  Major  Robertson's  voice  "Battalion! 
Ready!  Fire!"  Eight  guns  thundered  almost  as  one 
and  continued  to  fire  each  about  four  shots  to  the  min 
ute  for  possibly  six  or  eight  minutes,  when  a  Federal 
battery  replied.  Then  came  Robertson's  command, 
"Limber  to  the  rear!  To  the  right,  march!  Gallop! 
."And  away  we  went  down  the  river  under  the  cover 
of  the  sheltering  woods.  A  piece  of  shell  took  off  the 
arm  of  one  of  Lumsderi's  men,  near  the  shoulder,  as 
we  moved  away.  His  name  was  Ray,  a  private  from 
somewhere  in  Georgia.  He  was  attended  and  brought 
to  camp  in  the  ambulance  and  sent  back  to  hospital, 
whether  he  recovered  or  not,  we  are  not  sure. 

It  developed  that  this  little  expedition  was  ar 
ranged  the  day  before  by  Bragg's  orders,  as  a  sort  of 
reconnaissance,  to  find  out  whether  or  not  the  Yankees 
had  any  artillery  at  this  point,  and  the  apposite  side  of 
the  river.  His  order  to  Robertson  was  to  leave  at  once 


LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY  27 

if  answered  by  artillery  and  not  to  engage  in  an  artil 
lery  duel.  All  along  the  route  of  return  to  camp,  the 
different  commands  in  the  trenches  wanted  to  know 
what  all  that  racket  meant  up  the  river.  "We  never 
heard  guns  fire  so  fast  in  our  lives  before."  "We 
thought  the  ball  must  be  about  to  open  again,  etc."  By 
mid-day  we  were  back  in  our  camp  again. 

The  battery  remained  in  this  camp  till  Tuesday, 
Nov.  24th,  the  morning  of  the  battle  of  Missionary 
Ridge,  when  camp  was  broken  and  wagons  sent  to  rear 
with  all  camp  equipage.  The  fighting  part  was  or 
dered  to  top  of  ridge  near  Gen.  Braggs'  headquarters. 
There  we  remained  with  the  battle  field  stretched  out 
before  us,  simply  ready  to  move,  and  viewing  the  great 
disaster  to  the  confederate  army  to  our  left,,  we  could 
take  no  part,  could  get  to  no  point  where  needed.  Be 
low  us,  in  our  immediate  front  and  to  our  right,  our 
men  held  their  own  manfully.  Orderlies  and  aids  gal 
loped  to  headquarters,  orderlies  and  aid  galloping 
away  again.  It  filtered  down  to  us  that  on  our  ex 
treme  left,  the  Yankees  had  gained  the  ridge  and  so 
taking  our  army  on  its  left  flank.  In  the  afternoon 
came  orders  to  us,  to  move  to  the  rear.  We  soon  found 
ourselves  traveling  rearward  with  lots  of  wounded  in 
fantry  and  so  continued  till  we  crossed  Chacamauga 
creek  and  took  a  position  to  .protect  the  crossing  if 
necessary.  Here  we  remained  until  next  morning 
Nov.  25th  till  9  :00  a.  m.,  the  boys  finding  in  a  deserted 
smoke  house  a  barrel  about  half  full  of  beef  tallow. 
It  was  broken  up  and  distributed  around  and  came  in 
afterwards  to  melt  up  for  biscuit  shortening.  It  tasted 
very  well,  when  biscuits  were  eaten  hot,  but  to  be  eaten 
cold  it  is  not  to  be  recommended. 

Hastening  to  Chicamauga  station,  we  found  the 
torch  had  been  applied  to  all  the  warehouses  and  com- 
misary  supplies  that  our  people  had  been  unable 
to  move  during  the  night. 

Gen.  John  Breckinridge  was  at  the  depot  and  or 
dered  Capt.  George  Little,  then  on  his  staff,  to  get  his 


28  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


old  Kentucky  Brigade  and  a  good  battery  and  place 
them  in  the  breastworks  around  the  depot  to  protect 
the  rear  in  retreat. 

He  found  Lumsden's  battery  and  they  remained 
with  the  Kentuckians  until  Sherman's  troops  had  ap 
proached  within  a  short  distance  and  were  about  to 
cut  them  off  on  the  east  of  the  railroad,  when  Gen. 
Breckinridge  ordered  them  withdrawn  to  a  ridge  about 
one-half  a  mile  to  the  east  where  Gen.  Cleburne  had 
drawn  up  his  division.  As  we  crossed  the  railroad, 
shells  from  Sherman's  battery  were  falling  around  the 
depot.  Several  women  were  on  station  platform  when 
the  first  shells  hurtled  past.  Some  dropped  to  their 
knees  in  prayer.  The  balance  followed  the  soldiers 
to  a  barn  for  cover.  The  kneeling  ones  were  quickly 
snatched  to  their  feet  and  hurried  away.  Despite  the 
shelling,  every  passing  confederate  took  time  to  find 
his  haversack  with  hard-tack,  sugar  or  anything  that 
came  handy  and  to  secure  as  big  a  slab  of  bacon  as  he 
could  find  transportation  for.  Our  gun  carriers  were 
regularly  festooned  with  "Old  Ned,"  as  the  boys  called 
bacon.  On  the  first  hill  east  of  the  station  the  battery 
went  into  position,  and  as  soon  as  the  enemy  appeared, 
opened  on  them  and  so  continued  to  fire  on  their  ad 
vancing  lines  until  ordered  to  leave  the  position,  and 
away  we  went  at  a  gallop  to  the  next  available  point 
and  into  battery  again.  So  we  continued  all  that  after 
noon,  assisting  the  infantry  rearguard  of  the  army  on 
that  road,  contesting  the  enemy's  advance  as  much  as 
possible.  When  night  came  we  continued  in  a  slow 
retreat,  the  road  being  blocked  with  wagons  and  ar 
tillery  and  in  terrible  condition  with  mud  and  ruts.  A 
mile  or  two  per  hour  being  the  best  we  could  do.  About 
midnight  we  came  to  a  point  where  another  road  join 
ed  ours,  along  which  another  Corps  had  retreated, 
with  a  high  ridge  ahead  of  us  to  cross,  mud  being  in 
many  places  axle  deep.  We  had  gotton  half  way  up 
the  hill,  when  the  Yanks  attacked  the  rear  squad  of 
the  other  Corps  below  us.  We  could  see  the  opposing 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


rifle  flashes  near  the  foot  of  the  hill  and  the  minie  balls 
were  singing  on  all  sides.  It  took  all  the  power  of 
the  teams  and  all  the  men  who  could  get  hold  of  each 
wheel  to  get  those  wagons  and  artillery  carriages  over 
that  hill,  and,  out  of  reach  of  the  enemy  while  the  in 
fantry  rear  squad  held  our  pursuers  in  check  with  a 
midnight  fight  in  which  no  man  could  see  another 
twenty  feet  away.  Everybody  and  everything  was  of 
course  coated  with  mud,  but  the  Yankees  got  nothing 
for  their  pains.  When  the  pursuing  forces  of  Oster- 
hau's  division,  sustained  by  Hooker's  Corps  reached 
Ringgold  gap,  Cleburne  had  prepared  an  ambush  for 
them  and  after  holding  them  in  check  until  night,  re 
pulsing  successive  charges  and  inflicting  heavy  loss 
on  the  enemy.  Gen  Hardie  sent  an  order  to  Cleburne, 
who  with  Gen.  Breckinridge  and  staff,  were  at  the  gap 
to  withdraw  the  rear  squad  to  Dalton,  a  former  member 
of  our  company,  by  order  of  Gen.  Breckinridge  burned 
the  two  bridges  across  the  Chicamauga  and  that  night 
the  army  took  position  at  Rocky  face  ridge  where  it 
remained  until  May  6,  1864.  This  ended  the  cam 
paign  for  the  year  as  far  as  the  reserve  artillery  was 
concerned,  for  when  we  reached  Dalton,  we  were  as 
signed  a  camp  ground  and  at  once  went  to  work  pre 
paring  quarters  for  the  winter  the  date  being  Nov. 
26,  1863. 

In  close  proximity  to  a  running  brook  and  nearby 
springs  we  built  log  huts.  Each  mess  was  composed 
of  individuals  who  associated  at  their  own  wills,  with 
out  any  interference  of  military  rules  or  company  offi 
cers.  The  camp  was  located  in  a  nice  piece  of  wood 
land,  composed  of  oak,  hickory,  pine  etc.,  on  the  west 
ern  side  of  the  brook  or  branch,  from  which  the  ground 
rose  at  a  gentle  slope  towards  the  east  and  west,  the 
flow  being  towards  the  north.  On  the  eastern  slope, 
just  opposite  the  center  of  the  battalion  park  of  artill 
ery,  Major  Felix  H.  Robertson  located  his  headquar 
ters  camp,  with  Sergeant  Major  James  T.  Searcy  as 
his  aide. 


30  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

Ranged  along  the  western  slope,  were  the  four 
batteries  of  four  guns  each,  that  composed  the  battal 
ion,  Lumsden's  on  the  right,  then  Barrett's  Massingale's 
and  Havis'  batteries.  Behind  the  guns  of  each  battery 
were  the  huts  of  the  men,  about  one  half  on  each  side 
of  a  .wide  street  reaching  back  perhaps  one  hundred 
yards,  at  the  head  of  which  streets  were  located  the 
quarters  of  the  officers  of  the  companies. 

Each  mess  built  its  own  hut  or  cabin  on  such  plan 
as  suited  themselves  and  their  number  of  individuals. 
The  commissioned  officers  of  each  company  with  their 
negro  servants  built  their  own. 

The  general  plan  of  each  hut  was  about  a  12x14 
foot  space,  ground  brought  to  a  level.  Two  sides  of 
16  foot  poles  and  back  end  of  14  feet  were  notched  up 
at  the  corners  to  a  height  of  about  seven  feet.  The 
frone  end  consisted  of  a  fire  place  and  rammed 
earth,  with  a  stick  and  mud  chimney  and  the  doorway 
poles  notched  down  on  the  side  walls  at  top  provided 
joists  about  7  feet  above  the  earthen  floor,  on  outer 
ends  of  which  joists,  plates  were  laid  to  support  the 
foot  of  the  pole  rafters.  Boards  of  four  feet  in  length 
split  out  from  cuts  of  straight  grained  pine,  made  a 
water  tight  roof.  Cracks  between  the  logs  were  daub- 
bed  with  mud  which  soon  dried.  The  joists  were 
ed  with  mud  which  soon  dried.  The  joists  were 
thrown  on  top  of  them  and  gable  ends  of  the  same  kind 
of  boards  that  made  the  room.  Bunks  three  or  four 
feet  wide  made  in  two  tiers  were  at  read  end  and  sides 
bottomed  with  smal'l  poles,  and  broom-sedge  and  oak 
and  pine  leaves,  with  a  blanket  spread  over.  Four-leg 
ged  slabs  made  good  benches,  but  many  split  bottom 
chairs  were  obtained  from  country  chair  makers.  With 
a  good  log  fire  three  or  four  feet  long  in  the  fire  place 
and  an  old  blanket  hung  in  the  doorway,  soldiers  were 
fixed  to  defy  the  coldest  days  of  winter  and  sleep  in 
comfort  on  the  coldest  nights.  A  good  fat  bed-fellow 
was  a  luxury  not  to  be  despised  and  on  coldest  nights, 
"spooning"  was  the  prevailing  fashion  with  covering 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  31 

well  tucked  under.  When  one  wanted  to  turn  over, 
it  was  necessary  for  the  other  to  do  the  same.  Some 
times  they  would  do  so  by  word  of  command  as  if  at 
drill  with  "one  time  and  two  motions." 

The  daily  military  routine  was  "Reveille"  at  day 
break,  stable  call,  breakfast,  guard  mounting,  police 
of  park  and  camp  a  citizen  would  call  it,  clearing  up 
details  to  go  out  for  forage  and  provisions.  A  few 
were  allowed  each  day  permits  to  go  out  into  the  coun 
try  on  private  foraging  expeditions,  seeking  to  pur 
chase  chickens,  eggs,  milk,  butter,  buttermilk,  vege 
tables,  etc.,  gun  squad  drills,  dinner,  and  in  fine 
weather  and  good  condition  of  the  ground  in  afternoon 
often,  field  drill  of  which  battery,  with  guns,  caissons, 
teams,  connoneers,  drivers  and  all  stable  call,  supper, 
camp  amusements  of  all  kinds,  tattoo  and  finally  taps. 
There  were  two  buglers  in  the  company,  Charles  M. 
Donoho  was  at  the  company  headquarters.  He  acted 
as  messenger  also.  The  other,  Rufus  Menander  Rosser 
was  in  the  same  mess  as  the  writer.  One  of  his  duties 
was  to  blow  the  Reveille  call  at  a  certain  hour  each 
morning.  His  habit  was  to  hand  his  bugle  on  the  end 
of  house  plate  that  extended  at  the  door.  One  freezing 
night  some  of  the  boys  emptied  a  gourd  of  water  into 
the  open  mouth  of  the  bugle,  thus  filling  the  coils  of 
same  with  water.  Next  morning,  at  break  of  day,  our 
friend  Rosser  essayed  to  blow  "Reveille."  His  cheeks 
expand  nearly  to  bursting,  but  not  a  note  comes  from 
the  bugle,  not  even  a  part  of  a  breath  will  pass  through. 
Rosser  uncovers  the  glowing  coals  amongst  the  ashes, 
pushes  together  the  fire  chunks  and  with  his  breath 
blows  up  a  blaze  and  starts  to  holding  bugle  in  same. 
Footsteps  of  boots  are  heard  outside.  They  stop  at 
our  door  and  in  pops  the  head  of  Lt.  A.  C.  Hargrove 
with  the  question,  "Rosser!  why  have  you  not  blown 
Reveille?"  But  his  eyes  take  in  the  situation,  while  he 
asks  the  question,  and  Rosser's  answer,  "Lieut,  some 
rascal  has  filled  my  bugle  and  it's  full  of  ice,"  is  really 
not  needed.  Off  stalks  the  Lieut,  to  find  Donoho,  and 


32  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

his  bugle  soon  sings  out  the  familiar  notes.  At  the 
end  of  which,  each  man  is  in  ranks,  front  faced  by  the 
Orderly  Sergeant  who  calls  the  company  roll  and  then 
a  new  day's  duties  are  begun. 

Thereafter  Rosser's  bugle  forms  part  of  his  pillow, 
for  allowing  such  a  mishap  to  occur  again  would  mean 
extra  work  at  some  drudgery.  The  officers  daily  re 
port  would  show  up  the  excuses,  but  the  boys  got  some 
little  fun  out  of  such  tricks.  We  were  all  afraid  of 
Major  Robertson.  His  reputation  was  that  of  a  harsh 
disciplinarian  and  our  company  was  largely  composed 
of  young  men  of  the  highest  social  ranks.  The  fear 
was  general  that  for  some  little  disobedience  of  orders, 
or  some  infraction  of  military  red-tape,  some  punish 
ment  might  be  ordered  by  him,  that  the^  culprit  would 
rather  die  than  submit  to  something  degrading.  We 
had  some  object  lessons.  The  Major's  hostler  came  to 
camp  one  night  drunk.  At  some  order  of  the  Major, 
the  fellow  let  in  and  gave  the  officer  a  vile  cursing,  with 
opprobrious  epithets,  called  him  a  half  "Injin",  etc., 
and  worse  still,  common  rumors  had  it  that  the  Major 
did  have  Indian  blood  in  him  and  he  was  called  gener 
ally  "Comanche  Robertson",  but  its  only  foundation 
was  his  unusually  dark  complexion  and  eyes. 

The  sergeant  of  the  guard  was  sent  for  and  the 
obstreperous  fellow  forced  off  to  the  guard  house. 
Next  morning  the  sergeant  was  ordered  to  bring  the 
poor  devil  to  the  Major's  quarters,  and  hang  him  up  by 
strings  tied  to  his  thumbs,  with  hands  behind  his  back, 
till  only  his  toes  could  touch  the  ground.  So  he  was 
kept  until  he  was  almost  frozen  stiff.  The  whole  com 
mand  recognized  the  fact  that  the  culprit  deserved 
the  severest  kind  of  punishment.  He  was  of  a  class 
that  could  not  appreciate  leniency  and  yet  the  men 
were  inexpressibly  shocked  to  see  such  torture.  To 
see  a  confederate  soldier  subjected  to  brutal  punish 
ment  under  the  very  eyes  of  the  insulted  officer  did  not 
seem  to  be  the  proper  thing.  Had  he  been  courtmar- 
shalled  and  shot,  it  would  not  have  shocked  us  half 


LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY  33 

so  much,  but  to  see  a  white  man,  a  volunteer  serving  the 
Confederacy  subjected  to  a  punishment  that  public 
opinion  of  the  South  would  have  considered  brutal  on 
even  a  negro  slave,  notwithstanding  the  recognized 
heinousness  of  the  officer,  went  to  our  hearts. 

The  effect  on  the  men  in  the  ranks  was  not  good, 
the  utter  helplessness  of  a  private  was  brought  home 
to  us.  It  was  hurtful  to  pride  as  Confederate  soldiers 
serving  our  country  for  duty's  sake,  and  fear  of  officers 
replaces  badly  a  soldier's  pride  in  his  work.  Each 
soldier  from  that  time  feared  Robertson.  Had  this 
soldier  watched  his  chance  and  murdered  the  officer, 
and  then  deserted  to  the  enemy,  the  general 
opinion  would  have  been  that  such  action  was  to  have 
been  expected. 

That  such  did  not  happen,  showed  that  the  dis 
grace  was  not  keenly  felt,  by  reason  of  the  social  state 
from  which  the  soldier  sprung,  something  on  the  New 
Orleans  "wharf  rat",  order.  One  morning  between  mid 
night  and  day,  one  of  my  mess-mates  was  on  guard  at 
the  stable  lot,  a  mild  spring  morning,  and  the  moon 
shining.  He  got  tired  "walking  his  post"  so  he  climbed 
on  top  of  the  fence,  under  shadow  of  a  tree  and  there 
took  his  seat  overlooking  the  lot.  He  expected  to  be 
able  easily  to  see  or  hear  any  inspecting  officer  first 
and  to  be  able  quietly  to  slide  down  and  resume  "walk 
ing  his  post"  from  under  the  shadow  without  being 
caught,  "sitting  down  on  a  post,"  a  disobedience  of 
military  orders  always. 

All  at  once  a  voice  just  behind  him,  outside  the 
fence  calls  out,  "Where's  the  sentinel  here?"  and  there 
stood  the  Major.  "Here  I  am,  Sir!"  "Get  down  and 
walk  your  post,  Sir!"  "All  right,  Sir!"  But  very 
shortly  after,  the  Corporal  came  from  the  guardhouse, 
with  a  Supernumerary  of  the  guard  and  relieved  our 
friend,  who  was  marched  off  to  guard  quarters  under 
arrest. 

Next  morning  he  was  turned  over  a  prisoner  to 
the  charge  of  the  succeeding  guard,  with  a  feeling  of 


34  LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY 


wonder  hanging  over  him  as  to  what  sort  of  punish 
ment  he  might  expect.  But  he  did  not  have  to  wonder 
long.  The  officer  of  the  day  came  to  guard  quarters 
with  instructions  to  give  this  prisoner  an  axe  and  a 
pick  and  to  set  him  to  grubbing  a  big  pine  stump  in  the 
battery  park,  i.  e.,  the  ground  occupied  by  the  gun 
carriages  and  caissons  in  regulation  order.  My  recol 
lection  is,  that  the  stump  lasted  our  friend  several  days 
and  that  it  took  some  little  help  of  his  body  servent, 
Rube,  in  the  small  hours  of  the  night  to  get  that  stump 
out  of  the  ground. 

The  grubber  was  busy  about  it  during  the  day,  and 
slept  around  the  guard  house  fire  of  a  night,  until  the 
stump  got  out  of  the  ground.  Then  he  was  sent  for  to 
Battalion  Headquarters  and  our  Major  gave  him  quite 
a  gentlemanly  admonition,  as  to  such  "lapse  from 
duty,"  etc.,  which  was  thankfully  received  and  duly 
noted.  Now  this  offense  against  military  rules  must 
needs  have  some  punishment,  and  this  punishment  was 
received  in  good  part,  and  there,  was  no  degradation 
in  it.  Our  friend  took  the  chances,  got  caught  and 
cheerfully  took  his  medicine  without  a  shadow  of  ill 
will  against  the' officer  ordering  it.  Rather  he  was 
much  obliged  to  him  for  the  leniency  of  it.  It  was  on 
a  par  with  a  quite  common  punishment  imposed  on 
soldiers,  "straggling"  on  a  march.  One  of  his  superior 
officers  coming  upon  him  a  way  behind  his  command 
on  the  road  would  say:  "Well,  what  is  the  matter,  Mr. 
Smith  or  Jones?"  Oh!  I  just  dropped  out  to  get  some 
water  from  a  spring."  "Were  you  detailed?  Where's 
your  canteens?"  "No  Sir!  I  just  dropped  out!"  "All 
right,  you  take  a  rail  off  that  fence  and  bring  it  along, 
and  we'll  go1  on  together."  There  was  no  help  for  it. 
He'd  have  to  "carry  that  rail."  At  least  as  long  as 
the  officer  chose  to  stay  along  with  him.  When  he 
wanted  to  ride  ahead  and  leave  the  rail  carrier,  it 
would  be,  "Well  Smith,  I'll  ride  on,  catch  up  soon,  or 
I'll  have  to  report  you  for  straggling."  Away  the  offi 
cer  would  go,  down  would  go  the  rail,  and  Smith  would 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  35 

probably  catch  up  at  the  next  resting  place.  Soldiers 
never  minded  such  punishments  inflicted  in  the  line 
of  military  discipline.  The  more  intelligent  the  pri 
vate,  the  more  he  was  cognizant  of  the  necessity  of 
discipline  to  an  army,  to  prevent  its  disintegrating  into 
a  mob.  The  officer  and  the  private  might  be  close 
personal  friends  individually,  but  as  soldiers,  one  com 
manded,  the  other  obeyed. 

During  the  winter  quarters,  an  election  was  held 
for  the  Junior  Second  Lieutenant,  as  commonly  called. 
The  two  principal  candidates  were  Orderly  Sergeant 
John  A.  Caldwell,  and  private  Robert  W.  Foster,  both 
planters  sons,  both  equally  educated,  and  both  from 
Tuscaloosa  County.  My  impression  is  that  Foster  re 
ceived  the  most  votes,  and  he  was  of  a  most  popular 
disposition.  It  is  probable  that  Caldwell's  being  Or 
derly  Sergeant,  had  lost  him  some  votes,  as  no  man  in 
authority,  could  always  please  everybody,  and  be  of 
any  account. 

Then  each  candidate  had  to  stand  an  examination 
by  a  Board  of  Officers  in  some  way,  Caldwell  got  the 
commission.  Foster  felt  much  that  he  had  been  treat 
ed  unfairly  and  wrote  out  an  application  to  be  trans 
ferred  to  the  Confederate  Navy.  This  he  sent  to 
Bragg's  headquarters  direct,  not  up  through  the  hands 
of  company  Battalion  Officials.  Bragg  ordered  him 
court  martialled  for  this  breach  of  military  etiquette. 
The  result  was  a  verdict  of  guilty  and  a  sentence  to 
solitary  confinement  on  bread  and  water  diet  for  a 
certain  number  of  days.  A  small  log  hut  was  built 
close  to  guard  quarters  10x6  feet  inside,  7  feet  deep, 
without  any  door,  the  ceiling  of  heavy  logs  and  roofed 
over,  with  the  ordinary  split  boards.  Foster  had  to 
climb  over  the  wall  and  into  the  hut  through  hole  left 
in  the  ceiling  for  the  purpose,  logs  were  replaced,  and 
roof  also.  His  blankets  of  course  were  put  in  with 
him.  His  mess  carried  him,  his  big  thick  bread,  and 
it  was  not  all  dough  between  the  crusts.  We  do  not 
think  that  water  alone  quenched  his  thirst.  He  had 


36  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

the  sympathy  of  the  whole  command.,  who  believed 
that  his  sentence  was  out  of  all  reason,  for  a  violation 
of  military  "red  tape,"  and  perhaps,  treading  on  some 
one's  corns.  But  Lumsden  saw  the  ill  effects,  threats 
were  being  made  to  tear  the  hut  down,  and  release 
him ;  and  the  finest  kind  of  soldiers  were  beginning  to 
get  sulky.  So  he  mounted  his  horse  and  went  to 
Bragg's  headquarters.  What  transpired  there  none  of 
us  ever  knew,  but  Lumsden  rode  back  with  orders  for 
Foster's  release  and  restoration  to  duty.  The  whole 
thing  was  a  mistake,  first  on  Bragg's  part,  and  lastly 
in  the  sentence  placed  by  the  officers  who  constituted 
the  military  court.  A  mere  reprimand  would  have 
been  ample,  and  not  caused  any  sulkiness  among 
spirited  men.  Forcible  release  of  the  prisoner  would 
surely  have  resulted  in  serious  consequences  to  many, 
and  the  possible  ruining  of  a  good  command.  We  re 
late  the  incident  as  illustrating  the  traits  of  character 
of  the  two  officers. 

Bragg's  want  of  tact,  and  Lumsden's  possession  of 
that  same  quality  in  the  handling  of  volunteer  citizen 
soldiers.  Foster  had  probably  more  friends  than  ever 
in  the  whole  battalion. 

When  not  on  duty,  the  men  in  camp  followed 
their  own  inclinations.  Books  and  letters  and  games, 
of  all  kinds.  Furloughed  men  went  home  and  re 
turned  for  others  to  go.  Boxes  of  provisions  and  cloth 
ing  came  first  to  one  and  then  to  another  from  home. 
Some  had  good  musical  talents,  and  impromptu  con 
certs  were  of  almost  nightly  occurrence.  H.  Calib 
Peterson,  and  others  of  like  talents,  contributed  large 
ly  to  the  amusements  of  the  camp,  with  ministrel  shows 
and  songs  with  banjos,  bones,  reed,  and  other  accom 
paniments.  One  of  the  books  that  went  the  rounds 
was  "St.  Twelmo,"  a  traversity  on  Miss  Augusta  Evans, 
(Mrs.  Wilson),  St.  Elmo,  the  heroine  of  St.  Twelmo 
being  described  as  being  such  a  "plenary  pulchritude" 
with  attainments  to  suit. 

At  company  headquarters,  when  the  full  quota  of 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  37 

officers  was  on  hand,  were  Capt.  C.  L.  Lumsden,  Lieuts. 
Eb  H.  Hargrove,  A.  C.  Hargrove,  John  A.  Caldwell,  and 
Cadet  Lieut.  Sykes.  Also  Chas.  M.  Donoho,  bugler 
and  messenger,  and  Henry  Donoho,  his  cousin,  head- 
quarter's  clerk.  But  it  sometimes  happened  that  every 
commissioned  officer  was  away  with  Cadet  Sykes,  left 
in  the  command.  Caldwell,  being  promoted  to  Lieut. 
J.  Mack  Shivers,  was  appointed  Orderly  Sergeant. 
The  other  Sergeants  were  John  Little,  James  Jones, 
(from  Autauga  County,)  James  Cordwell  and  Wilds, 
with  John  Snow,  quartermaster  and  commissary 
Sergeant. 

The  Corporals  were :  Thomas  Owen,  T.  Alex  Dear- 
ing,  Wade  Brook,  and  J.  R.  Maxwell,  gunners,  J.  Wick 

Brown,  John  Watson,  W.  B.  Appling,  and  , 

chiefs  of  caissons.  About  May  1st,  1864,  Sherman 
moved  out  from  Chattanooga,  and  Lumsden's  Battery 
left  winter  quarters  for  good,  never  again  to  be  in  a 
permanent  camp  for  any  length  of  time. 

It  was  placed  on  the  left  of  railroad  north  of  Dai- 
ton,  on  Mill  creek  cap  at  east  end  of  Rocky  face  ridge. 

Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston  was  now  in  command. 
The  whole  army  had  lost  all  confidence  in  Bragg's 
ability  to  secure  the  fruits  of  victory,  gained  by  the 
hard  fighting  alone,  of  his  troops.  Perryville,  Mur- 
freesboro  and  Chickamauga  had  also  ended. 

On  May  8th,  the  enemy  attacked  Stevenson's  Di 
vision,  along  Buzzard  Roost  Ridge,  east  of  railroad, 
and  Mill  creek  gap  with  Geary's  Division.  They  were 
easily  repulsed.  Lumsden's  battery  assisting  by  plac 
ing  a  few  shells  in  the  gap  on  the  right  of  the  attacking 
Division.  Geary  reported  a  losst  of  200  to  300  men,  and 
that  it  was  impossible  to  take  the  position  by  assault. 
As  Sherman's  army  forged  to  the  South  west  on  its 
flanking  movement,  the  battery  was  withdrawn,  and 
on  May  15th,  next  faced  the  enemy  in  a  field  of  green 
wheat  on  the  Oastenaula  river,  below  the  railroad 
bridge  at  Resaca,  18  miles  south  of  Dalton,  on  the  day 


38  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

of  McPherson's  attack  at  that  point,  but  did  not  get 
to  fire  a  shot. 

The  position  was  on  the  west  of  a  gentle  rise,  that 
inclined  slightly  to  our  rear.  Had  infantry  charged 
our  front,  a  few  steps  forward,  would  have  enabled 
us  to  sweep  the  field.  A  Federal  rifle  battery,  fired  at 
us  for  a  while,  where  we  lay  on  the  ground  barely 
covered  from  their  fire,  when  one  of  the  shells  skim 
med  the  crest  of  the  hill,  it  would  miss  our  back  a  foot 
or  two  and  pass  on  with  no  damage  to  us.  The  ground 
wras  hot  under  us,  and  the  sun  shining  hot  down  on  us, 
but  we  avoided  stopping  any  of  the  shots,  and  we 
could  not  reach  them  with  our  smooth  bores.  We  lay 
there,  with  our  guns  loaded  with  canister,  ready  to  stop 
an  infantry  charge,  but  it  was  all  delivered  farther  to 
our  right.  Our  monotony  was  released  by  chatting 
and  munching  the  contents  of  our  haversacks.  We 
surely  had  a  hot  time  there  in  the  hot  sun  and  shell 
combination,  but  we  had  no  casualities.  We  had  pro 
tection  from  Yankee  projectiles,  but  none  from  those 
of  Old  Sol.  It  was  McPherson's  corps  in  our  forest  and 
south  westward  to  success  the  Oastenaula.  His  rifle 
batteries  commanded  the  railroad  bridge,  with  pon 
toon  and  common  bridge  below.  That  night  John 
ston's  army  withdrew  across  the  Oastenaula. 

At  Cassville  thirty  miles  south  of  Resaca,  on  night 
of  May  19th,  Johnston  had  contemplated  giving  Sher 
man  a  general  battle. 

Orders  were  read  to  all  commands  announcing  the 
battle  for  next  day.  Our  men  were  ready,  believing 
Johnston  had  Sherman's  army  where  he  could  whip 
first  one  portion,  then  the  other,  but  for  reasons  about 
which  there  is  controversy,  the  attack  of  our  right  wing 
on  the  enemy  the  next  morning  was  delayed,  the  op 
portunity  was  lost  and  the  retreat  continued.  When 
we  crossed  the  Etowah  below  Cartersville,  the  rail 
road  bridge  was  burned  and  the  battery  went  into  po 
sition  facing  the  crossing  on  a  low,  rocky  ridge,  in  the 
afternoon. 


LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY  39 

The  writer  remembers,  sitting  down  at  the  roots  of 
a  tree,  and  immediately  springing  up,  brushing  the  seat 
of  his  pants  vigorously.  Examination  showed  that  he 
had  set  down  on  a  nest  of  little  brown  scorpions. 
Something  like  a  crawfish  in  shape,  with  tails  turned 
up  over  their  backs,  with  a  sting  like  a  wasp's  in  the 
end  of  the  tail.  The  laugh  of  the  boys  was  on  him. 

Some  Federal  cavalry  rode  down  to  the  river,  on 
the  other  side,  but  a  few  shells  scattered  them,  and  at 
dark  we  again  moved  southward  toward  New  Hope 
church  and  Dallas. 

On  the  afternoon  of  May  25th,  traveling  the 
sparsely  settled  country  road,  about  2 :00  p.  m.  a 
courier  brought  our  Captain  orders  to  rush  his  guns 
forward,  infantry  and  wagons  giving  space  and  away 
we  went,  the  cannoneers  mounting  on  our  gun  car 
riages  and  caissons.  Private  ames  Hogan,  of  Tusca- 
loosa,  in  attempting  to  mount  a  gun,  limber  in  motion, 
fell,  one  wheel  of  the  gun  passing  over  his  body.  A 
man  was  ordered  to  stay  with  him  and  see  that  an  am 
bulance  carried  him  to  a  hospital.  He  was  so  injured, 
as  to  prevent  him  serving  further  during  the  war.  As 
we  drew  near  to  New  Hope  church,  we  found  infantry 
of  Stewart's,  corps,  hastily  building  log  breastworks, 
along  the  right  of  the  road,  with  the  rattle  of  heavy 
skirmishing  in  the  thick  forest  in  the  front.  Our  bat 
tery  was  ordered  to  turn  aside  to  the  left  and  go  into 
battery  and  wait.  This  threw  us  into  position  with  our 
infantry  line  perhaps  fifty  yards  in  our  front.  The 
Federals  attacked  with  Hooper's  corps  in  force,  and 
the  battle  of  New  Hope  church  was  fought  and  won, 
by  our  infantry  line,  we  never  getting  a  chance  to  fire 
a  shot.  Our  cannoneers  lying  on  the  ground  at  their 
posts  ready  to  fire,  should  the  infantry  give  back.  At 
dark  we  were  placed  in  position  on  the  infantry  line 
and  ordered  to  intrench  and  by  morning  of  26th,  we 
had  a  pretty  fair  earthwork  in  our  front  facing  a  Fede 
ral  battery.  The  woods  were  very  dense,  and  it  was 
only  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  across  the  hollow  to 


40  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

the  Federal  entrenchments.  Between  the  two  lines 
the  earth  was  strewn  with  the  Federal  dead. 

Both  sides  had  skirmishes  in  rifle  pits  in  front  of 
them,  and  any  exposure  of  a  portion  of  the  body 
brought  the  "ping"  of  a  bullet  in  close  proximity. 
One  struck  about  an  inch  above  the  head  of  Lieut.  A.  C. 
Hargrove,  into  the  body  of  an  oak  against  which  he 
was  sitting,  a  little  in  rear  of  embankment.  His  head 
showed  a  little  too  high  above  the  breastworks.  Two 
inches  lower,  it  would  have  finished  him.  Both  sides 
had  to  lie  close  in  daylight.  A  little  to  the  rear  and 
left  was  the  old  church. 

Capt.  Lumsden  sent  a  man  to  Gen.  Quarles,  who 
had  his  Brigade  headquarters  just  in  rear  of  the 
church,  to  borrow  a  field  glass.  The  General  and  his 
staff  wanted  to  know  all  about  the  situation,  which  was 
described  as  well  as  possible.  One  of  the  aides  hand 
ed  over  his  glasses,  and  requested  the  messenger  to 
let  them  know  whatever  was  discovered  in  our  front. 
It  was  suggested  that  he  come  along,  "Oh  no!  We 
don't  think  it  necessary !  You  can  tell  us  all  about  it 
when  you  return  back."  The  others  laughed  and  said : 
"Go  ahead,  young  man."  Capt.  Lumsden  thought  he 
could  make  out  a  battery  opposite,  but  it  was  difficult 
to  be  sure  as  their  lines  were  partly  hidden  by  brush, 
like  our  own.  Our  old  Orderly  Sergeant,  now  Capt. 
Geo.  Little,  on  Gen.  Bate's  staff,  had  letters  and  socks 
from  home  for  his  two  brothers,  John  and  James,  in 
our  company,  and  rode  up  to  the  church  where  Gen. 
Stewart  was  sitting  on  the  steps  and  asked  him  where 
Lumsden's  battery  was.  He  said  they  are  just  over 
there  about  100  yards,  but  you  can't  ride  there,  come 
behind  the  church  with  your  horse,  a  man  was  killed 
where  you  are  sitting,  just  now.  All  was  quiet  then 
as  could  be.  There  was  a  country  graveyard  between 
the  church  and  our  line.  He  left  his  horse  behind  the 
church,  and  started  to  the  battery,  but  in  a  moment 
there  were  a  hundred  bullets  pattering  like  hail  on  the 
clap  boards  which  covered  the  graves.  He  ran 'for 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  41 

cover  in  the  trenches,  and  for  ten  minutes  the  firing 
was  kept  up  and  then  quieted  down,  when  he  slipped 
back  from  the  cover  of  one  tree  to  another  to  the 
chruch,  mounted  his  horse  and  made  his  way  back  to 
his  own  quarters. 

About  June  4th,  the  Federals  disappeared  from 
our  front  at  New  Hope  church,  and  we  moved  back 
and  toward  Lost  mountain  and  the  railroad  which  we 
cossed  the  next  day,  and  on  June  8th,  went  into  posi 
tion  on  a  ridge  overlooking  Big  Shanty  Station,  being 
on  the  east  side  of  railroad.  This  new  line  came  to  be 
known  as  the  Pine  Mountain  line.  Here  we  entrench 
ed.  On  June  llth,  we  saw  a  rifle  battery  near  Big 
Shanty  firing  on  our  lines  to  the  left.  We  fired  on 
them.  They  replied.  Our  trenches  were  a  little  be 
low  the  top  of  the  hill,  with  the  limber  chests  exposed, 
being  higher  than  the  works.  Lumsden  ordered  them 
to  be  run  down  close  behind  the  works.,  which  was 
done.  But  one  Federal  shell  exploded  one  of  the 
chests  while  it  was  being  moved.  Sergt.  J.  Mack 
Shivers  was  shoving  it  at  the  time  but  escaped  much 
injury.  The  Yankee  battery  withdrew  from  the  open, 
and  we  shortly  after,  heard  of  Gen  Folk's  death.  We 
always  believed  that  we  were  firing  on  the  battery 
that  killed  him.  During  all  this  time  we  were  having 
heavy  rains  every  day.  We  have  an  idea  that  the 
whole  army  was  wet  to  the  skin  every  day  in  June. 
One  great  trouble  was  to  keep  our  corn  bread  dry  until 
we  culd  eat  it.  But  wet  bread  could  be  turned  into 
"hot  cush,"  whenever  we  stopped  long  enough  to  have 
a  fire  and  the  weather  being  warm,  our  clothing  would 
get  moderately  dry  between  showers.  The  men  had 
by  this  time  gotton  pretty  tough,  and  looked  tough, 
and  like  a  set  of  toughs. 

Falling  back  on  June  15th,  from  the  Pine  moun 
tain  line,  to  the  Kennesaw  mountain  line,  to  face  Sher 
man,  who  was  flanking  to  our  left,  the  battery  first 
took  position  close  to  the  top  of  the  main  spur  of  the 
mountain,  a  little  to  the  right  and  north  of  the  top  and 


42  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

entrenched  along  with  a  lot  of  infantry.  Th6  only 
Federals  who  got  within  our  range  at  this  position  were 
a  lot  that  crowded  around  a  railroad  water  tank,  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountain.  We  put  a  few  shells  through 
the  tank  scattering  both  Yanks  and  water.  But  the 
Yanks  put  a  rifle  battery  off  in  the  valley,  out  of  our 
reach  and  went  to  work  on  us  scientifically.  They 
figured  out  our  range  and  the  very  first  shell  burst 
about  three  feet  exactly  over  our  breastworks,  and  the 
next  one  or  so  killed  one  of  our  men,  nemed  Black- 
stock,  a  Georgian.  A  splinter  clipped  Horace  Martin's 
ear — marked  him.  Lt.  Hargrove  was  on  the  bare  top 
of  the  mountain  to  see  what  he  could  see.  They  fired 
at  him  and  the  shell  struck  the  ground  in  his  front,  and 
ricochetted  over  his  head,  end  over  end.  It  was  cer 
tainly  fine  shooting  and  sport  for  those  rifle  gunners, 
and  doubtless  they  enjoyed  it.  We  certainly  did  not, 
but  each  got  to  a  safe  place  and  kept  it,  as  soon  as  we 
found  what  those  fellows  could  do  at  over  a  mile  dis 
tance.  This  was  on  June  19th.  As  this  position  was 
a  worthless  one  for  our  guns,  we  were  ordered  down 
and  moved  to  the  south  edge  of  Little  Rinnew,  reliev 
ing  another  battery.  The  change  was  made  during  the 
night,  and  Lumsden  was  told  that  it  was  a  hot  place. 
So  we  worked  on  the  entrenchments  from  about  mid 
night  when  we  had  arrived  until  daylight.  We  made 
good  embrasures,  thickened  the  works  in  our  front  and 
dug  trenches  for  our  caisson  wheels  close  behind  works/ 
so  that  axles  lay  on  the  ground.  The  limber  chests 
were  taken  from  gun  carriages  and  placed  on  ground 
close  up  to  the  works.  That  afternoon,  Col.  Alexan 
der,  in  command  of  the  artillery  along  this  line,  came 
along  and  Capt.  Lumsden  told  him  that  he'd  like  to 
find  out  what  the  enemy  had  over  there.  Col  Alex 
ander  told  Lumsden,  "Well,  open  on  them  and  I'll  order 
the  rifle  battery  further  up  little  Kennesaw  to  your 
right  to  support  you."  Lumsden  gave  him  time  to  get 
up  to  the  rifle  battery,  and  then  came  his  command : 
"Cannoneers  to  your  posts!"  Each  gunner  was  told 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


where  to  aim,  and  the  estimated  distance.  Then: 
"load!  Battery  ready!  Fire!"  Those  Yankees  opened 
on  our  four-gun  battery,  with  twenty-four  guns  and  the 
dirt  was  soon  flying  over  and  around  us.  We  fired 
rapidly  and  so  did  the  rifle  battery,  but  directly  a  shell 
came  through  number  3  embrasure,  killed  Gurley, 
standing  erect  with  thumb  on  vent,  plunged  into  caisson 
just  behind  and  exploded  all  three  chests  thereon. 
The  flame  exploded  a  cartridge  lying  on  limber  chest 
next  to  the  breastwork  and  our  own  shell  went  rolling 
around  promiscuously.  Lt.  Hargrove  grabbed  a  slush 
bucket  and  proceeded  to  pour  water  into  the  limber 
chest  with  the  smashed  top,  where  fuses  were  fizzling 
and  friction  primers  crackling  in  the  tray  above  the 
loaded  cartridges  thereon.  Some  of  the  boys  yelled 
at  him  to  let  that  thing  go,  but  he  poured  that  water  on, 
and  put  out  thoses  fuses.  Every  fellow  was  dodging 
our  own  shells  for  a  few  minutes. 

A  tin  strap  from  one  of  the  sabots  struck  Corporal 
John  Watson  on  the  tight  seat  of  his  pants,  and  he 
dropped  flat,  with  his  hands  clapped  on  the  place 
where  he  had  felt  the  blow,  yelling:  "Oh,  I'm  wounded, 
I'm  wounded."  The  laugh  was  on  him,  when  it  was 
found  that  his  pants  were  not  even  split. 

Gracious!  How  those  Yanks  did  yell,  when  the 
column  of  smoke  went  high  in  the  air  from  our  explod 
ed  caisson.  Well,  all  the  satisfaction  we  got  out  of  the 
affair,  was  that  "We  found  out,  what  the  enemy  had 
over  there,"  and  we  did  not  stir  up  that  hornet's  nest 
again.  Occasionally,  they  would  plug  at  us,  but  we 
would  lie  low  and  not  reply.  One  of  their  24-lb.  rifled 
parrot  shells  ricocketted  over  from  the  front  one  day 
with  out  exploding.  Some  of  the  men  got  it  unscrewed 
the  percussion  fuze  from  its  point  and  poured  out  a  lot 
of  powder,  then  dug  out  some  more  with  a  sharp  stick, 
until  they  thought  it  was  about  empty.  Then  private 
Dan  Kelly,  got  hold  of  it,  stooped  down  to  a  flat  rock 
and  jolted  the  point  down  on  the  rock.  It  struck  fire, 
exploded  and  tore  Kelly's  arm  and  hand  all  to  pieces. 


44  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

He  was  sent  to  hospital,  then  home,  and  I  think  died 
from  the  wound. 

We  more  than  evened  up  on  the  Yanks,  a  few 
days  after,  on  June  27th,  when  Thomas's  and  McPher- 
son's  corps  swarmed  over  their  works  and  started  for 
our  lines  in  a  determined  assault.  We  filled  the  skirt 
of  woods  in  front,  full  of  shells  until  their  lines  ap 
peared  in  the  open,  and  then  we  swept  the  earth  with 
canister  and  over  their  line  of  infantry  made  every  bul 
let  count,  so  that  in  our  immediate  front,  they  did  not 
get  nearer  than  150  yards,  and  had  to  rush  back  to 
cover  of  their  own  entrenchments.  Our  command  had 
no  casualities  that  day,  but  many  Federals  were  buried 
in  trenches  in  our  front,  their  total  loss  officially  re 
ported  in  the  assault  was  2,500. 

Here  is  what  is  recorded  in  Federal  official 
records : 

"He  (Sherman)  Resolved:  To  attack  the  left  cen 
ter  of  Johnston's  position,  and  orders  were  given  on 
the  24th,  that  on  the  27th,  McPherson  should  assault 
near  Little  Kennesaw  mountain  (our  position,)  and 
that  Thomas  should  assault  about  a  mile  further  south, 
(to  our  left).  Kennesaw  was  strongly  entrenched, 
and  held  by  Loring's  and  Hardee's  corps,  Loring  on  the 
right,  opposite  McPherson  and  Hardee  on  the  left  op 
posite  Thomas.  About  9:00  a.  m.  of  the  27th,  the 
troops  moved  to  the  assault  and  all  along  the  line  for 
ten  miles  a  furious  fire  of  artillery  and  musketry  was 
kept  up.  A  part  of  Logan's  15th  corps,  formed  in  two 
lines,  fought  its  wray  up  to  the  slope  of  Little  Kennesaw, 
carried  the  confederate  skirmish  pits  and  tried  to  go 
further,  but  was  checked  by  the  rough  nature  of  the 
ground,  and  the  fire  of  artillery  and  musketry  at  short 
range  from  behind  breastworks.  Logan's  assault  fail 
ed  with  a  loss  of  600  men,  and  his  troops  were  with 
drawn  to  the  captured  skirmish  pits  *  *  *  The  assault 
was  over  by  11:30  a.  m.,  and  was  a  failure. 

It  was  the  most  serious  reverse  sustained  by  Sher- 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  45 


man  during  the  campaign.  The  entire  Union  loss  was 
nearly  2,500. 

Johnston  admits  a  Confederate  loss  of  808  killed 
and  wounded.  That  ended  Sherman's  attempt  to  force 
our  lines,  and  started  his  flanking  operations  again. 
Soon  we  were  ordered  back  southwest  of  the  Chatta- 
hoochee  river,  where  we  occupied  a  fort,  overlooking 
the  Western  &  Atlantic  railroad  bridge,  and  were 
soon  faced  by  the  enemy  with  infantry  and  artillery 
again  entrenched,  with  a  rifle  battery  on  opposite  side 
of  river  three-quarters  of  a  mile  away.  They  would 
occasionally  try  a  little  traget  practice  at  our  fort. 
Our  orders  were  to  refrain  from  firing  unless  an  at 
tempt  was  made  to  cross  the  river.  On  our  side  there 
was  merely  infantry  enough  to  picket  the  river. 

The  fort  was  an  enclosed  one,  i.  e.,  hadparapet  all 
around,  and  embrassures  in  all  directions,  as  if  built 
to  stand  a  siege  even  if  entirely  surrounded  by  the 
enemy.  Our  four  guns  were  its  whole  armament  how 
ever,  fronting  the  river  and  its  destroyed  bridge  below 
us. 

We  here  bivouaced  at  ease.  The  slope  in  rear  of 
fort  had  some  shade  bushes  and  formed  a  compara 
tively  safe  camping  grounds,  but  we  lost  one  man  here 
who  was  in  rear  of,  and  outside  of  the  fort.  A  rifle 
shell  just  missed  the  front  parapet,  cut  a  furrow  in  the 
rear  parapet,  and  took  off  the  head  of  a  private,  named 
Maner,  another  Georgian.  Some  of  us  who  were  in 
side  the  fort  saw  his  straw  hat  rise  ten  feet  in  the  air 
and  knew  that  another  comrade  had  gone. 

Here,  on  July  17th,  at  evening  roll  call,  technically 
named  the  "Retreat"  call,  the  memorable  order  was 
read  to  our  command,  relieving  Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johns 
ton,  and  placing  Gen.  J.  B.  Hood,  in  command  of  the 
army.  It  was  received  in  dead  silence,  and  figurative 
ly  speaking  "our  hearts  went  down  into  our  boots,"  or 
whatever  happened  to  be  covering  our  heel. 

The  army  had  still  the  fullest  confidence  in  Johns 
ton.  They  knew  that  for  more  than  two  months  he 


46  LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY 

had  baffled  Sherman  in  spite  of  his  overpowering  force 
of  two  to  one,  and  had  inflicted  heavy  losses  on  the 
enemy,  with  small  loss  to  his  own  army  either  in  men 
or  material.  They  idolized  Johnston  and  were  ready 
to  fight,  whenever  Johnston  was  ready.  They  be 
lieved  "Old  Joe"  knew  his  business,  and  did  not  be 
lieve  that  Sherman  could  hold  on  to  his  line  of  supplies, 
and  still  surround  the  city.  They  believed  that  Presi 
dent  Davis  had  made  a  terrible  mistake,  and  that  be 
lief  remains  to  the  officers  and  men  of  the  army  of 
Tennessee  to  this  day.  They  admired  Hood,  his  per 
sonal  character  and  gallantry,  but  they  believed  in 
Johnston  as  second  only  to  Robert  E.  Lee,  and  that  the 
Confederacy  did  not  hold  another  man  who  could  so 
well  serve  her. 

Sherman  moving  the  main  portion  of  his  army  to 
wards  the  northeast,  covered  by  the  Chattahoochee, 
but  still  holding  the  W.  &  A.  railroad  with  his  right 
wing,  our  battery  was  ordered  to  report  to  Gen.  Wheel 
er,  who  with  his  cavalry  was  on  the  extreme  right  of 
our  army.  We  were  placed  in  position  on  the  bank  of 
the  Chattahoochee,  where  a  ravine  entered  the  river 
at  a  very  acute  angle,  forming  a  narrow  ridge  between 
river  and  ravine,  so  that  by  cutting  down  into  the 
ground  and  throwing  the  dirt  out  toward  the  ravine, 
we  made  level  places  for  our  guns  with  a  solid  wall  of 
earth  as  high  as  the  muzzle  of  our  guns,  overlooking 
the  slope  toward  the  river,  the  hills  opposite,  and  the 
Federal  entrenchments  along  the  upper  edge  of  the 
fields  with  an  embrasured  battery  in  view.  Our  en 
trenchment,  as  described,  made  no  show.  We  were 
there  simply  to  guard  against  an  easy  crossing  at  this 
point. 

Lt.  A.  C.  Hargrove,  next  day  was  standing  at  the 
parapet  near  muzzle  of  3rd  piece  talking  to  Corporal 
Maxwell,  who  was  gunner  to  that  piece.  A  puff  of 
smoke  came  from  a  Federal  embrasure  across  the  river 
and  both  squatted  below  the  protecting  bank.  The 
shell  struck  the  body  of  an  oak  tree  standing  just  in 


LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY  47 

front,  and  some  twenty  feet  above  the  ground,  tearing 
off  a  heavy  fragment,  slightly  larger  than  a  man's  fore 
arm,  which  came  down  with  force,  the  end  cutting 
through  Hargroves'  hat  on  his  forehead  and  to  the 
skull,  a  gash  two  inches  long.  '  Maxwell  said:  "Lieut., 
they  are  cutting  at  us  close,"  still  looking  to  the  front. 
Hargrove  said:  "Well,  they  got  me."  Maxwell  turned 
around  and  there  stooped  Hargrove,  hat  on  ground, 
and  his  hands  to  his  head,  with  blood  gushing  through 
his  fingers  all  down  over  him.  He  was  much  stunned 
with  the  blow,  but  when  Maxwell  spread  the  lips  of 
the  wound,  and  the  blood  ran  out,  the  solid  skull  of 
his  forehead  showed  uncrutched.  Nevertheless  the 
blow  threatened  concussion  of  the  brain,  and  he  was 
sent  home  for  several  weeks.  Dr.  N.  P.  Marlowe,  then 
surgeon  with  Wheeler's  corps  taking  him  in  his  own 
ambulance  to  the  Hospital,  after  dressing  his  wound. 

The  enemy  crossing  in  force,  lower  down  the 
river,  our  battery  wras  retired  from  this  position  and 
placed  on  the  main  line  of  defense  northeast  of  At 
lanta,  and  was  soon  faced  by  the  enemy  again,  after 
the  battle  of  Peachtree  Creek,  with  his  entrenchments 
forming  quite  an  angle  in  our  front,  some  800  yards 
away,  but  his  lines  stretched  from  that  angle  almost 
perpendicularly  away  from  us  toward  his  left. 

On  July  22nd,  Hardee's  corps  of  Confederates  at 
tacked  Sherman's  left  and  drove  it  for  a  long  distance 
back  toward  his  center.  The  right  of  this  fleeing 
corps  came  into  our  range  making  for  the  protection 
of  their  works  at  this  angle  and  Lumsden's  guns  shelled 
them  just  in  front  of  their  own  works  as  they  reached 
them,  we  firing  over  the  heads  of  the  Georgia  militia, 
who  were  pushed  forward  across  the  valley  as  if  to 
join  in  an  assault,  but  were  soon  returned  to  their 
works  after  considerable  loss. 

Seeing  these  old  citizens  wounded  and  dying 
struck  us  with  sympathy,  with  somewhat  of  the  same 
feelings  we  might  have  experienced  at  seeing  a  lot  of 
..women  ^sacrificed.  They  started  in  the  charge,  had 


48  LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY 

withdrawn  to  the  trenches  again.  We  were  accus 
tomed  to  that  with  regular  soldiers,  but  the  sacrifice 
of  these  old  citizens1  affected  us  to  an  unusual  degree. 

Being  relieved  from  this  position,  by  a  battery  at 
tached  to  an  infantry  brigade  that  now  occupied  these 
trenches,  we  were  sent*  to  the  rear  and  parked  near  a 
stream  south  of  Atlanta  to  wash  up  clothing  and  rest  a 
bit.  But  before  our  washing  was  dry,  orders  came  to 
rush  the  battery  to  a  position  some  five  miles  south 
west  of  Atlanta.  We  went  at  a  gallop,  or  trot,  or  walk 
as  fast  as  we  could  rush  the  guns  and  caissons.  With 
the  cannoneers  hanging  on  as  best  they  could.  Reach 
ing  the  position  just  in  time,  meeting  our  infantry 
slowly  falling  back,  before  the  enemy,  fighting  as  they 
retreated.  We  rushed  "into  battery,"  on  a  hill  at  edge 
of  open  field,  with  the  Federal  infantry  already  past 
the  way  across  the  field  and  opened  on  them  with  our 
usual  rapid  fire.  In  ten  minutes  not  a  Federal  could 
be  seen  except  the  few  wounded  or  dead  left  behind. 

It  was  a  terribly  hot  July  afternoon  and  the  men 
with  jackets,  blankets,  haversacks  and  all  else  possible 
strewn  on  the  ground  were  panting  like  dogs,  and  so 
wet  with  sweat  as  if  just  out  of  a  river,  when  they 
threw  themselves  down  in  the  shade  of  the  trees  on 
the  edge  of  the  field  after  the  firing  ceased  with  the 
disappearance  of  the  enemy.  We  had  not  lost  a  man. 
Our  arrival  and  work  was  so  quick  that  the  enemy 
rushed  to  the  rear  at  once  to  the  cover  of  the  forest. 
Our  guns  used  some  33  or  34  rounds  each  in  the  short 
time  in  action. 

All  night  infantry  and  artillery  men  worked  with 
every  available  tool,  down  to  the  bayonet  to  loosen  up 
the  earth,  and  half  of  a  split  canteen  to  throw  up  the 
dirt  and  next  morning  found  us  entrenched  in  our  new 
line.  But  on  the  other  edge  of  the  field,  the  Yankee 
trenches  showed  up  some  800  yards  away. 

In  this  position  Lumsden's  battery  remained 
nearly  all  the  month  of  August.  Every  few  days  we 
would  have  an  artillery  duel  with  the  rifle  battery  op 
posite.  Sherman  was  now  extending  his  right  wing, 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  49 

which  finally  led  to  the  assault  of  Love  Joy  station,  on 
the  road  south  of  Atlanta.  He  had  also  brought  down 
seige  guns,  that  fired  shells  about  the  size  of  nail  keg, 
and  was  shelling  the  city.  One  Sunday  we  had  a  par 
ticularly  fierce  duel  with  our  opponents.  It  happened 
that  the  embrasure  of  the  3rd  piece  flared  a  little  more 
squarely  to  the  front  of  the  others.  Three  whole  shells 
struck  the  3rd  gun  during  the  action,  each  coming 
through  the  embrasure  only  about  one  foot  in  width. 
One  struck  on  top  between  trunnions  and  vent,  gouging 
out  the  brass  like  a  half  round  chisel  would  have 
gouged  a  piece  of  wood,  and  glaced  on  to  the  rear. 
The  second  struck  gun  carriage  on  left  cheek,  just  in 
front  of  left  trunnion  and  went  into  small  fragments  in 
every  direction.  The  third  struck  the  edge  of  the  muz 
zle,  and  crushed  it  so  that  we  could  get  no  more  shells 
into  the  gun.  It  was  ruined  temporarily,  and  had  to 
be  sent  to  the  arsenal  at  Macon. 

About  this  time,  Gen.  Hardee  and  staff  rode  up. 
He  inquired:  "What's  the  matter  here?"  "Nothing, 
said  Lumsden,  but  those  fellows  opened  on  us  and  I 
make  it  a  point  to  give  as  good  as  they  send."  "Well, 
cease  firing  its  doing  no  good,  and  we  must  husband 
our  ammunition."  Old  man  Lane  had  the  front  end  of 
one  foot  cut  off  by  a  piece  of  shell.  He  was  bringing 
up  an  armfull  of  cartridges  from  the  caissons  under  the 
hill  at  the  time,  but  did  not  throw  down  his  load  until 
he  brought  it  to  the  gun,  loudly  proclaiming,  that  he 
hoped  these  shells  would  pay  them  back  for  his  wound. 
But  that  was  the  end  of  his  service  in  our  army.  He 
was  over  conscript  age,  but  came  as  a  substitute  for 
some  one  who  could  pay  for  a  man  to  take  his  place. 

I  believe  that  he  was  the  only  man  struck  that  day 
in  our  company,  but  in  rear  of  the  3rd  gun  that  had 
been  put  out  of  action,  a  bunch  of  canteens,  hanging 
on  a  forked  post  were  all  rendered  useless  by  pieces 
of  shell  or  bullets  coming  through  the  embrasure. 
The  Yankee  three-inch  rifle  was  a  dead  shot  at  any 
distance  under  a  mile.  They  could  hit  the  head  of  a 


50  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

flour  barrel  more  often  than  miss,  unless  the  gunner 
got  rattled.  The  shell  consisted  of  three  parts,  a  coni 
cal  head  with  smaller  cylinderical  base,  a  cap  to  fit, 
that  base  loosely  and  a  ring  of  lead  that  connected  the 
head  and  base.  When  fired  the  cap  at  butt  was 
thrown  forward  on  the  cylinderical  base  of  the  cone, 
expanding  the  lead  ring  into  the  grooves  of  the  rifle, 
the  cone  exploding  by  percussion  cap  on  striking.  It 
was  the  most  accurate  field  piece  of  that  date.  Our 
smooth  bore  12  pounders  were,  always  at  a  disadvant 
age  in  artillery  duels,  but  with  time  fuses  and  at  masses 
of  men,  or  at  a  battery  in  open  field,  800  to  1,000  yards, 
they  did  good  service,  and  with  canisters  they  could 
sweep  the  earth. 

After  Lovejoy's  station,  we  were  moved  up  to  the 
city,  and  put  into  a  casemated  fort  for  a  short  time  in 
the  outskirts  of  the  city,  whilst  evacuation  was  going 
on,  and  were  among  the  last  of  the  commands  to  leave 
the  doomed  town,  whence  we  retreated  with  a  portion 
of  the  infantry  toward  Macon,  Ga.  Burning  stores  of 
all  kinds  were  located  by  the  soldiers,  mail  cars  sacked, 
and  letters  and  packages  of  all  kinds  gone  through  at 
road  side  fires  in  search  of  money,  the  useless  letters 
feeding  the  fire.  This  was  on  the  night  of  September 
2,  1864.  Rations  on  the  retreat  got  very  short  and  for 
once  our  men  were  forced  to  live  off  the  country. 
When  bivouac  was  made  for  the  night  above  Macon, 
for  the  success  of  our  own  particular  mess,  all  scattered 
after  "retreat"  roll  call  in  different  directions.  About 
midnight  they  had  all  come  in,  and  pots,  kettles,  ovens, 
and  hot  coals  were  in  demand.  Henry  Donoho  had 
shelled  out  about  a  peck  of  cornfield  beans  from  the 
nearly  ripe  pods  in  the  fields. 

Walter  Guild  turned  up  with  a  long  stick  across 
his  shoulder,  with  two  large  pumpkins  stuck  on  each 
end.  Ed  King  and  Jim  Maxwell  each  had  a  sack  of 
sweet  potatoes,  grabbled  in  a  field  a  mile  and  a  half 
away. 


LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY  51 


The  Rosser  boys  had  corn  too  hard  for  roasting, 
but  all  right  to  grate  on  an  old  half  canteen  grater. 

Rube,  Aleck  Bearing's  servant  had  half  a  shoat 
and  Jim  Bobbett,  my  own  servant,  had  two  ducks. 

Some  one  owned  a  big  brass  kettle,  that  would 
hold  about  half  a  barrel,  which  the  wagons  hauled, 
and  it  was  soon  on  the  fire,  filled  with  the  sliced  pump 
kins,  to  be  stewed  down.  Some  did  one  thing,  and 
some  another,  and  by  an  hour  before  day,  that  feast 
was  ready,  and  several  more  along  the  same  lines  in 
the  camp.  We  ate  our  fill,  filled  haversacks,  distribu 
ted  the  balance  to  whoever  wanted  it  and  were  ready 
to  move  at  daylight.  I  believe  that  it  was  the  only 
meal  I  remember  during  the  war,  where  everything 
was  the  proceeds  of  plunder. 

We  had  been  pretty  close  to  a  famine  for  a  day  or 
two,  but  this  was  surely  a  feast. 

It  was  all  contrary  to  military  law,  but  soldiers 
were  not  going  to  sit  still  and  starve,  when  something 
to  eat  could  be  had  out  of  the  fields  for  the  taking,  and 
the  officers  could  not  be  expected  to  sit  up  nights  to 
come  around  and  inspect  our  pots  and  kettles,  and  if 
they  did,  they  could  prove  nothing,  and  so, 
for  the  occasion  and  the  recognizing  necessity,  nothing 
was  ever  said  about  it.  The  men  were  on  hand  ready 
and  able  to  do  duty,  and  the  tangle  of  the  crisis  was 
soon  straighetned  out  and  our  rations  coming  through 
the  regular  channels.  From  Macon,  by  way  of  Griffin, 
where  a  few  days  were  spent  in  camp  and  thence  to 
West  Point  on  the  Georgia-Alabama  line,  where  prep 
arations  were  made  to  cut  loose  from  the  railroad,  and 
traverse  northeast  Alabama  with  Hood's  army  to  strike 
for  middle  Tennessee  by  way  of  Decatur  and  Florence, 

west  of  the  mountains.  This  was  now ,  so 

that  we  had  been  months  and  days  in  reaching  in  a 
roundabout  manner  since  the  fall  of  Atlanta,  on  Sept. 
2.  Hood's  infantry  and  cavalry  had  been  somewhere 
south,  and  southwest  of  Atlanta.  Sherman  was  fix 
ing  to  destroy,  and  strike  out  southeast  across  Georgia, 


52  LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY 

and  Hood  was  preparing  to  strike  out  for  middle  Ten 
nessee  and  Nashville. 

With  our  guns  and  wagons,  we  joined  the  army 
wagon  train,  making  its  way  northwestward,  during 
a  very  rainy  spell  of  weather.  Traveling  through  the 
flat  piney  woods  was  awful.  The  white  loblolly  mud 
was  often  axle  deep  in  the  road,  and  turning  out  in 
these  flats  did  not  seem  to  better  the  matter  much.. 

The  writer  had  now  been  appointed  a  Sergeant, 
and  been'  given  a  pie  bald  pony  to  ride  at  the  head  of 
his  4th  Detachment  of  gun  caisson.  One  day  his  pony 
got  both  feet  on  same  side  into  a  deep  rut  under  the 
loblolly  and  down  flat  broadside  he  went  and  the 
writer  disappeared.  When  he  emerged  he  was  greet 
ed  with  the  well  known  yell,  "Come  out  of  that,  I  see 
your  ears  sticking  out."  When  the  mud  dried,  it  flaked 
off  and  I  was  not  much  worse  off  temporarily  than  the 
balance  of  the  crowd  and  they  were  welcome  to  the 
fun. 

Finally,  we  reached  the  Tennessee  valley,  in  Mor 
gan  County,  and  marched  westward.  The  sites  of  the 
old  plantation  homes  were  now  marked  only  by  groups 
of  chimneys,  the  plantations  a  dreary  waste.  Reach 
ing  vicinity  of  Decatur  about  we  found  it 

garrisoned  by  a  Federal  force  with  entrenchments,  but 
Hood's  objective  point  for  crossing  the  Tennessee  river 
was  between  Tuscumbia  and  Florence.  Near  Tus- 
cumbia,  our  battery  was  again  in  camp  for  a  few  days. 
As  from  West  Point  to  Florence  in  a  direct  line  is  about 
200  miles  by  the  route  traveled  by  us  250  or  275  miles 
of  continuous  march.  We  were  not  sorry  to  get  a 
chance  to  rest,  wash,  clean  and  repair  up.  Here,  in 
the  garden  spot  of  Alabama,  prior  to  the  war,  food  was 
scarce.  The  beef  issued  to  us  could  not  produce  a 
bead  of  fat,  on  the  top  of  the  pot,  when  boiled.  Bacon 
or  salt  pork,  when  we  got  any  was  generally  rancid. 
But  we  got  here  one  unusual  luxury  in  the  way  of  food, 
a  fines  young  fat  mule  had  its  back  broken  by  the  fall 
of  a  tree,  cut  down  in  camp.  So  it  was  killed  and  the 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  53 

boys  took  possession  and  divided  it  out.  It  was  very 
fat.  The  fat  from  its  "innards"  was  "tryed"  out  like 
oil  and  saved  in  bottles  and  cans  for  "breadshortening" 
for  which  it  answered  well.  The  meat  was  very  fine, 
much  better  than  any  beef  we  had  gotton  for  a  long 
time.  But  the  boys  made  all  sorts  of  fun  over  it.  We 
had  some  left  to  carry  along  on  the  march,  and  a  sol 
dier  would  pull  out  a  hunk  from  his  haversack,  throw 
up  his  head  and  let  out  a  big  mule  bray,  "a-h-h-h  u-n-k, 
a-h-h-h  u-n-k,  a-h-h-h  u-n-k,"  bite  off  a  mouth  full  and 
go  to  chewing. 

The  crossing  of  the  Tennessee  on  the  night  of 
Nov.  20,  1864,  over  a  pontoon  bridge  at  south  Florence 
was  to  officers  and  men  of  Lumsden's  battery  only  one 
of  many  disagreeable  experiences.  No  more  than  our 
whole  army  had  gotton  used  to  expericening  in  such 
campaigns  in  all  sorts  of  weather  and  conditions,  its 
locality  merely  makes  it  stand  out  in  the  memory,  a 
little  more  prominently  than  other  such  experiences. 
Notified  in  the  afternoon  to  be  ready  in  our  turn  to 
cross  over,  then  again  to  fall  into  the  line  on  the  South 
bank  after  dusk;  moving  on  to  the  bridge  after  dark, 
and  occupying  several  hours  in  crossing,  moving  a  few 
paces  in  the  bridge,  then  halting  and  standing  shivering 
in  a  drizzling  rain,  until  again  a  few  paces  could  be 
gained.  Then  at  the  north  bank,  getting  our  teams 
up  the  steep  banks  through  mud  axle  deep,  by  doub 
ling  teams  and  all  hands  at  the  wheels  and  getting 
through  the  night,  hovering  over  roadside  fires  along 
streets  of  Florence  and  roads  beyond  until  daylight 
brought  a  possibility  of  finding  a  place  to  make  a  temp 
orary  halt  for  feed  and  rest  for  man  and  beast. 

Qn  November  27th,  reaching  the  vicinity  of  Col 
umbia,  where  Schofield  was  entrenched  with  an  army 
of  about  the  same  size  as  Hood's,  a  demonstration  was 
made  of  an  attack  on  his  lines,  but  the  main  position 
of  our  army  crossed  Duck  river  above  Columbia  and 
struck  for  Spring  Hill  on  the  turn  pike  between  Colum 
bia  and  Franklin. 


54  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


On  29th,  the  Battalion  of  Reserve  Artillery  was 
ordered  to  leave  guns  and  caissons,  with  horses  and 
drivers,  under  charge  of  one  Commissoned  officer  south 
of  Duck  river.  The  captains,  two  Lieuts.,  Non-Com- 
missioned  officers  and  cannoneers  were  ordered  to  fol 
low  the  infantry  brigades;  the  object  being  to  be  able 
to  man  any  batteries  that  might  be  captured  from 
the  enemy  in  this  move  against 'his  rear.  Lumsden  was 
ordered  to  report  to  Brig.  Gen.  Reynolds  and  to  keep 
right  up  with  his  brigade  under  all  circumstances.  It 
was  nearly  dark  when  we  found  ourselves  in  a  half 
mile  of  Spring  Hill,  and  there,  we  remained  all  night, 
without  any  attack  being  delivered  on  the  enemy  hur 
rying  northward  along  the  pike,  wagons/  artillery  and 
all  other  vehicles  kept  on  a  rush  with  their  infantry 
on  east  side  of  the  pike  to  protect  against  our  attack. 

Time  was  lost  during  the  day  in  building  rough 
bridges  across  creeks  waist  deep  to  infantry,  which  had 
better  have  been  waded,  for  the  few  hours  so  lost,  pre 
vented  a  successful  attack  at  Spring  Hill  which  Hood 
had  planned  to  demolish  Schofield. 

Forrest  was  trying  to  delay  their  advance  toward 
Franklin,  and  sometimes1  succeeded  in  getting  possess 
ion  of  pike  for  a  short  time,  capturing  teamsters  shoot 
ing  down  teams  in  their  harness  and  setting  fire  to  their 
wagons. 

But  their  rear  passed  Spring  Hill  before  daylight 
the  next  morning,  with  Hood's  infantry  pursuing  their 
rearguard  closely  into  Franklin,  where  a  strong  line 
of  entrenchments  had  been  prepared  around  the  edge 
of  the  city  from  Harpeth  river  above  the  same  below 
town,  and  a  strong  line  of  rifle  pits  out  in  front  of  the 
regular  trenches. 

On  the  afternoon  of  Nov.  30,  1864,  Hood  attacked 
these  entrenchments  about  4  :00  p.  m.  Reynodl's  bri 
gade  was  on  the  right  of  the  pike,  somewhat  to  the 
right  of  the  historic  genhouse.  As  this  brigade  started 
in  the  charge  on  the  first  line  of  rifle  pits,  Lumsden's 
command  was  close  behind  with  no  weapons  but  their 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  55 


bare  hands.  Gen.  Reynolds  noticed  it  and  riding  up 
called  out  ot  Capt.  Lumsden:  "Captain,  take  your  men 
back  behind  the  hill  to  our  rear."  And  so  it  was  done ; 
though  as  soon  as  our  infantry  reached  the  valley  and 
the  bullets  ceased  to  fly  so  thickly  about  the  top  of  the 
hill,  the  whole  company  was  soon  at  the  top  of  the 
ridge,  watching  the  terrible  struggle  in  our  front  over 
the  Federal  entrenchments  on  the  outskirts  of  Franklin. 

Away  in  the  night,  the  flashing  rifles  revealed  the 
firing  of  two  armies  with  a  bank  of  six  feet  of  earth 
between  them,  until  finally  it  gradually  ceased.  Be 
fore  daylight  we  got  certain  intelligence  that  the  enemy 
was  gone  through  Corporal  Tom  Owen,  gunner  to  2nd 
piece,  who  with  another  prospecting  companion  or  two 
had  been  into  the  town  and  returned  with  a  bucket  of 
molasses  and  some  other  eatables. 

Here  we  were  left  by  Gen.  Reynolds'  brigade,  and 
where  our  horses,  guns  and  caissons  came  up,  Lums- 
den's  battery  was  again  in  its  usual  fighting  trim,  and 
moved  on  to  Nashville  where  it  was  on  Dec.  4th,  in  the 
front  trenches  on  the  left  of  the  Grannary  White  Pike, 
in  the  yard  of  a  fine  brick  house,  which  the  enemy 
had  destroyed  just  outside  of  their  fortifications, 
known  as  the  "Gales  house".  Our  lines  were  so  close 
to  those  of  the  enemy  across  a  narrow  valley  of  cleared 
fields,  that  no  one  could  expose  any  portion  of  his  body 
on  either  work,  without  drawing  the  fire  of  his  enemy 
opposite.  Some  of  the  boys  found  good  quarters  in 
side  of  the  old  furnace,  within  a  few  steps  of  our  guns, 
those  of  us  in  the  outside  wishing  there  were  a  few 
more  furnaces.  Talk  about  not  dodging!  Whenever 
one  of  us  had  to  move  about,  he  had  to  dodge  from  one 
cover  to  another.  But  there  was  one  comfort,  our  in 
fantry  kept  our  enemies  dodging  also.  About  Dec. 
10th,  we  were  relieved  from  this  position  by  another 
battery,  and  ordered  to  the  extreme  left  of  the  army 
and  put  in  position  on  a  small  hill,  about  700  yards  west 
of  the  Hillsboro  pike,  opposite  the  house  of  Robert 
Castleman,  who  lived  on  the  east  side  of  said  pike  some 


56  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

three  and  a  half  miles  south  of  Nashville,  and  three 
quarters  of  a  mile,  southwest  from  the  extreme  western 
end  of  Hood's  line,  on  the  Hillsboro  pike.  Here,  we 
were  ordered  to  entrench. 

Moving  southward  from  Nashville  battlefield, 
with  the  remenant  of  Hood's  army,  Lumsden's  battery 
was  now  but  a  name  for  a  command  of  men  without 
arms,  with  a  quota  of  horses,  wagons  for  commissary 
and  quartermaster's  supplies  with  their  drivers,  one 
half  its  cannoneers  having  been  lost  at  Nashville,  killed 
wounded  and  prisoners. 

A  relation  of  a  few  happenings  along  this  dreary 
march  in  midwinter  the  roads,  a  loblolly  of  sleet  and 
turnpike  dust  and  grit,  may  serve  to  show  how  Lums- 
den  and  his  officers  maintained  disciplne  without  re 
sort  to  severe  or  degrading  punishment  for  lapses  from 
duty.  Like  all  volunteer  commands,  it  had  in  its  ranks 
men  from  all  conditions  of  life  and  of  various  degrees 
of  education  from  the  collegiate  down  to  the  illiterate 
man  who  could  not  write  his  own  name.  But  perhaps 
one  half  of  the  enlisted  men  or  privates  were  graduates 
and  had  started  into  professional  life  or  had  left  col 
lege  to  give  their  services  to  their  country  before  the 
end  of  the  university  terms.  They  were  gentlemen, 
and  imbued  generally  with  the  high  sense  of  honor  and 
devotion  to  duty  usual  among  boys  and  men  in  such 
social  standing.  They  gave  the  general  tone  to  the 
command  and  the  officers  were  careful  to  do  all  possi 
ble  to  keep  its  moral  tone  and  to  impose  no  punishment 
that  would  lower  the  culprit  in  his  own  estimation. 
They  did  punish  by  imposing  extra  duties  for  violation 
of  military  rules,  but  always  the  individual  punished 
as  well  as  all  his  comrades  were  perfectly  conscious 
that  the  punishment  was  deserved,  and  therefore  nec 
essary.  For  instance  a  private  had  been  grumbling 
for  several  weeks  to  his  sergeant  about  putting  him  on 
details  so  often,  ignoring  the  fact  that  the  numerous 
jobs  to  be  attended  to,  brought  around  often  to  each 
man,  his  time  to  go  on  detail.  One  morning  this  pri- 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  (Insert) 


The  description  of  the  duty  to  which  Lumsden's  Battery 
was  assigned  in  the  battle  of  Nashville  on  December  15th,  1864 
was  lost  in  some  way  and  not  printed  in  Lumsden's  Battery  History 
where  it  belongs  near  the  top  of  Page  56  just  after  the  sentence 
"Here  we  were  ordered  to  entrench". 

The  omission  was  not  noticed  until  after  the  volumes  had 
all  been  printed. 

These  special  pages  must  therefore  be  put  in  an  insert 
and  read  in  their  proper  place,  after  which  again  the  history 
takes  up  the  further  retreat  of  the  remnant  out  of  Tennessee. 

Major  John  Foster  of  the  Engineers,  with  a  detail 
of  100  men  had  already  started  on  the  work.  Hood's 
orders  were  that  it  should  be  a  regular  fort  enclosing 
the  top  of  hill.  As  yet,  it  was  simply  a  redoubt,  facing 
a  ridge  some  800  yards  -away  that  ran  nearly  perpen 
dicularly  to  the  general  direction  of  the  army's  line 
of  battle  at  the  extreme  left  end  of  the  army.  Between 
the  ridge  and  the  location  of  redoubt  were  cultivated 
fields,  and  had  been  some  woods,  through  which  Rich- 
land  Creek  meandered  towards  the  north  west.  The 
woods  our  engineers  had  cut  down,  so  as  to  give  an 
uninterrupted  view  of  the  lands  in  our  front,  and  gave 
a  cover  for  skrimishers  who  might  be  driven  back  to 
wards  redoubt  and  also  gave  cover  for  an  enemy  line 
of  skirmishers  to  approach  to  writhin  100  yards  of  re 
doubt  under  cover,  when  they  had  driven  back  the  de 
fending  skirmishers. 

Major  Foster's  force  had  started  the  redoubt  short 
ly  after  the  remnant  of  Hood's  Army  (after  Frank 
lin)  had  aligned  itself  before  Nashville  and  entrenched 
somewhere  about  December  1st  to  3rd,  it  being  per 
haps  a  mile  or  more  from  extreme  left  of  Hood's  Army 
to  the  Cumberland  River.  Gen.  Chalmers  with  Caval 
ry,  and  the  remnant  of  Ector's  Brigade  of  infantry  as 
a  support,  guarding  the  gaps  between  left  of  Hood's 
entrenchments  at  Hillsboro  pike,  to  Cumberland  River. 
From  the  date  of  our  arrival  at  fort  location  we  had 
rain  snow,  and  sleet,  and  the  ground  frozen  hard,  so 
that  it  was  impossible  to  make  any  rapid  progress  on 
the  redoubt  laid  off  for  4  embrasures  for  our  4  Napo 
leon  guns.  Stretched  blankets  and  the  tarpaulins  from 
for  our  guns  and  ammunition  were  the  only  cover  for 
officers  or  men.  I  well  remember  that,  the  day  be 
fore  the  battle  of  the  15th,  my  servant  Jim  Bobbett 
brought  me  a  change  of  clean  under  clothing,  for  which 
I  had  to  scrape  off  the  snow  on  a  log  at  Richland  Creek, 
strip  and  bathe  in  its  icy  waters  to  make  a  change. 

By  the  15th  (the  day  of  the  battle)  we  had  man- 


(Inse-0  TUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


erals  so  long.  At  my  gun  we  had  lost  private  Horton 
and  Corporal  Gunner  Ed.  King.  Hilen  L.  Rosser 
at  another  gun  had  part  of  his  head  shot  away.  That 
night  as  I  was  pouring  some  water  for  Lumsden  to 
wash,  he  was  picking  something  out  of  his  beard,  and 
said:  "Maxwell,  that  is  part  of  Rosser's  brains",  out 
of  the  40  men  that  we  had  at  guns,  we  had  only  22 
left,  balance  having  been  killed  or  captured.  A  Fed 
eral  officer  rode  around  Lieut.  A.  C.  Hargrove  and 
demanded  his  surrender,  and  cut  down  at  his  head 
with  his  sabre.  Hargrove  caught  the  blow  on  his  arm, 
but  it  beat  down  his  arm  to  his  head  enough  to  "hurt 
like  thunder",  as  Hargrove  expressed  it. 

Hargrove  grabbed  a  loose  tree  branch  and  struck 
at  Yank's  horse  which  about  that  time  got  a  bullet 
from  our  infantry  line  and  ran  away  from  Hargrove, 
so  that  he  made  it  to  our  new  line.  • 

That  night  we  buried  Horton  near  the  Franklin 
pike,  where  we  bivouaced.  I  cut  his  name  on  a  head 
board,  and  Command  to  which  he  belonged. 

A  detail  was  sent  to  the  house  that  had  been  used 
as  a  hospital  to  bring  his  body.  A  long,  tall,  red-head 
ed  private,  John  Walker,  was  one  of  that  detail.  He 
had  been  carrying  a  great  long  navy  revolver  for 
months  for  use  in  such  circumstances.  When  asked 
how  many  times  he  shot  it.  He  laughed  and  said  it 
was  as  much  as  he  could  do  to  persuade  himself  that 
he  was  able  to  get  out  with  it. 

It  was  about  12  o'clock  that  Capt.  Lumsden  sent 
orderly  Sergeant  J.  Mack  Shivers  on  horseback  to  re 
port  to  General  Stewart  that  all  Confederate  infantry 
had  been  driven  into  the  fallen  timber  at  our  front,  and 
that  it  was  evident  the  enemy  would  soon  rush  us  with 
a  charge.  That  we  could  leave  the  guns  and  get  away 
with  all  the  men. 

Shivers  returned  with  the  orders,  "Tell  Captain 
Lumsden  it  is  necessary  to  hold  the  enemy  in  check  to 
the  last  minute  regardless  of  losses."  This  was  about 
12:30  P.  M.  They  overwhelmed  us  about  2  P.  M. 

So  that  Lumsden's  Battery  alone  had  stopped  the 
advance  of  A.  J.  Smith's  federal  Corps  for  3  hours 
during  which  Confederate  troops  had  been  moved 
from  right  wing  to  a  new  line  behind  the  Hillsboro 
pike  several  hundred  yards  in  our  rear,  which  was  all 
important,  to  the  Confederates. 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  57 

vate  said  something  to  the  sergeant  who  was  at  the 
time  cutting  up  the  detachment's  cooked  beef  into 
equal  portions,  that  passed  the  sergeant's  patience. 
He  laid  down  his  knife,  go  tup  and  faced  the  man,  with 
the  remark:  "I've  stood  your  jaw  as  long  as  I  intend 
to", -and  delivered  him  a  blow  with  his  fist  between  the 
eyes.  Of  course  things  were  lively  for  a  while  until 
Lt.  Hargrove  ran  up  interferred  forcibly  between  the 
combatants  and  ordered  them  back  to  the  duties  on 
hand.  Some  nights  after  the  sergeant  was  standing 
by  the  Captain's  fire  and  no  one  was  near,  but  Capt. 
Lumsden,  who  said :  "What  was  the  matter  with  you 

and  ,  the  other  morning?"     Nothing 

much,  Captain,  except  he  had  been  grumbling  and  fuss 
ing  for  some  time,  whenever  his  time  came  to  be  de 
tailed  on  a  job,  and  just  got  so  I  could  not  stand  it  any 
longer,  and  determined  to  put  a  stop  to  it."  "Well, 
you've  no  right  to  strike  any  of  these  men  with  your 
fist.-  If  a  man  is  insubordinate,  you  have  a  right  to 
shoot  him,  but  not  to  strike  him  with  your  fist."  The 
sergeant  laughed  and  replied:  "But  it  was  not  bad 
enough  for  that,  and  of  course  I  was  not  going  to  shoot 
him,  but  I  don't  think  he  will  need  any  more."  There 
was  never  anything  more  said  about  it,  and  the  soldier 
quit  grumbling  and  did  his  part  thereafter,  as  well  as 
anyone  to  the  end  of  the  war.  Another  case  in  point, 
just  after  leaving  Nashville,  a  non-commissioned  offi 
cer  had  been  affected  with  boils,  so  that  he  could  not 
ride  horseback  for  a  few  days,  and  it  was  against  or 
ders  to  ride  in  the  wagons.  His  boots  were  split  at 
the  counters,  the  soles  were  tied  to  the  uppers  by 
strings  and  he  had  no  socks.  The  turnpike  gritty 
freezing  slush  worked  into  his  feet  until  he  could  hard 
ly  hobble,  so  he  would  watch  his  chance,  when  no  offi 
cers  eye  was  on  him,  and  crawl  into  a  wagon  and  there 
stay  until  camp  was  reached  at  night  when  he  would 
crawl  out.  One  night,  when  he  crawled  out  in  a  driz 
zling  cold  rain,  and  finding  a  fire  in  an  old  barn  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  road,  with  soldiers  of  another  com- 


58  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

mand,  he  remained  there  in  comparative  comfort  all 
night,  and  after  daylight  turned  up  at  the  officers  fire. 
Lieut.  A.  C.  Hargrove  said  to  him:  "Where  were  you 
last  night,  Sir,  after  we  went  into  camp?"  "I  slept  in 
that  barn  across  the  road."  "Well,  we  had  to  send  a 
detail  with  horses  back  to  the  pontoon  train,  and  I 
wanted  to  send  you  in  charge  of  it,  but  no  one  could 
find  you  anywhere.  "You  have  been  straggling  ever 
since  we  left  Nashville,  and  not  attending  to  your 
duties."  "Lieutenant,  I've  not  been  straggling,  as  you 
think  I  have.  Look  at  my  feet,  I  could  not  walk  and 
keep  up.  I  had  boils  so  that  I  could  not  ride  my  horse. 
The  only  way  I  could  keep  up  was  to  steal  rides  in  a 
wagon  during  the  day,  and  that's  what  I  have  been  do 
ing."  "Well,  you  have  not  been  excused  by  the  sur 
geon."  "No,  Sir,  I  did  not  want  to  be  sent  away  from 
the  command."  When  the  Lieut,  walked  off,  the  Capt. 
said :  "I'll  tell  you  what's  the  matter  with  you.  You've 
got  out  of  heart.  You've  lost  all  hope  of  our  winning 
this  fight.  It  does  look  black.  But  the  thing  for  you 
and  me  and  all  the  balance  of  us  to  do,  is  to  just  stand 
it  out  to  the  end.  It  can't  last  much  longer.  That  is 
true.  But  when  it  is  done,  we  all  of  us  want  to  be 
conscious  that  we  have  done  our  duty  from  start  to 
finish."  "Captain,  I've  always  done  all  I  was  able  to 
do,  and  expect  to,  until  the  end  comes."  "That  is  true 
and  we'll  hold  out  to  the  end." 

That  was  Lumsden's  way  of  controlling  his  men. 
He  made  them  feel  as  if  he  knew  that  it  was  their  de 
termination  to  do  their  full  duty,  and  the  whole  tone  of 
the  battery  was  kept  up  to  the  standard  by  the  idea. 
The  high  standard  of  its  personale  was  the  result  not 
of  fear  or  compulsion,  but  of  individual  personal 
patriotism. 

On  this  retreat  it  was  difficult  to  find  food  for  the 
army,  and  first  one  command,  then  another,  ran  mighty 
short.  Passing  through  a  mountainous  thinly  settled 
country  during  Christmas  week,  our  Captain  gave  a 
few  permits  to  different  individuals  to  forage  off  the 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  59 

line  of  march.  One  forager  heard  of  some  mills  along 
a  creek  some  miles  off  the  line  of  retreat,  and  struck 
out  for  them  horseback.  On  his  arrival  at  the  first, 
he  found  it  crowded  with  infantry  men,  each  guarding 
nis  sack  of  wheat,  and  awaiting  his  turn  to  run  it 
through  the  mill.  The  miller  was  there,  and  was  ask 
ed  if  he  could  sell  a  sack  of  wheat.  He  replied: 
"these  soldiers  say  they  are  bound  to  have  all  there  is, 
and  I  help  them  grind  it,  to  save  injury  to  my  mill. 
The  wheat  belongs  to  the  neighborhood."  "Where  is 
there  another  mill?"  "About  three  miles  down  the 
creek."  Off  our  forager  rode.  He  saw  that  money 
nor  begging  would  prevail  to  get  bread  and  dtermined 
on  a  bluff.  The  next  mill  had  soldiers  claiming  all 
the  wheat,  but  some  of  it  was  in  boxes  or  bins.  He 
called  the  miller  out,  and  offered  to  pay  for  a  couple 
of  bushels.  "It  is  not  mine,  said  the  miller,  it  belongs 
to  people  around  here,  but  I  had  better  take  even  Con 
federate  money  for  it,  than  nothing  at  all,  and  if  you 
can  get  a  couple  of  bushels,  go  ahead."  So  into  the 
mill  our  man  went,  with  his  sack,  and  walked  up  to  a 
box  holding  perhaps  ten  bushels,  on  which  sat  a  sol 
dier  with  his  rifle  leaning  against  the  box,  with  the  re 
quest:  "Let  me  get  at  the  box,  if  you  please,"  "You 
can't  get  any  of  this  meal,  our  men  need  it  all",  reach 
ing  for  his  gun.  "I'll  show  you  about  that,  Sir,  my  men 
have  had  no  bread  for  three  days,  and  some  of  this 
wheat,  I'm  going  to  have"  and  he  began  shoveling  it 
into  his  sack,  regardless  of  protests,  until  sack  was 
full;  then  he  said,  "that  is  all  I  want,"  turned  to  the 
mill  hopper  dumped  it  in,  as  soon  as  the  same  was 
about  empty,  putting  his  sack  under  the  spout.  When 
his  sack  was  full  of  whole  wheat  meal,  he  tied  it,  paid 
the  miller  and  rode  off  rejoicing.  When  he  found  the 
command  that  night,  some  hogs  had  been  brought  and 
issued  by  the  commissary,  and  the  two  bushels  of 
wheat  meal  was  a  Godsend.  Our  mess,  after  break 
fast  next  morning,  divided  out  to  each,  eleven  big  army 
biscuits  apiece,  but  before  dinner  time,  one  guant  mem- 


60  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

ber  of  the  mess  had  finished  up  his  lot  and  was  on  the 
lookout  for  more. 

Recrossing  the  Tennessee  river  on  the  day 

of  December  near  Brainbridge,  we  camped  a  few  days 
near  Tuka,  Mississippi,  for  rest  and  a  general  cleaning 
up,  but  many  soldiers  had  no  clothing  except  the  rag 
ged  suits  they  had  on,  and  cleaning  involved  the  wash 
ing  and  drying  of  a  portion  of  their  garments  at  a 
time. 

A  Confederate  private  at  that  time  could  be  pic 
tured  in  words  about  thus:  A  pair  of  old  shoes  or 
boots,  with  soles  gaping,  and  tied  to  the  uppers  with 
strings,  no  socks,  threadbare  pants,  patched  at  the 
knees,  burnt  out  at  the  bottom  behind,  half  way  to  his 
knees,  his  back  calves  black  with  smoke,  from  standing 
with  his  back  to  fires,  his  shirt  sticking  out  of  holes  in 
rear  of  his  pants,  a  weather  beaten  jeans  jacket  out 
at  elbows  and  collar  greasy,  and  an  old  slouch  wool 
hat  hanging  about  his  face,  with  a  tuft  of  hair  sticking 
out  at  the  crown. 

The  officers,  in  many  cases,  did  not  show  up  much 
better.  In  either  case,  the  man,  who  had  a  negro  body 
servant  along,  fared  the  best,  and  was  kept  clothed  the 
best.  • 

The  negro  slaves  usually  had  money  in  their  pock 
ets,  when  their  masters  had  none,  that  they  made  serv 
ing  officers  and  men  in  many  ways. 

The  writer's  own  servant,  Jim  Bobbett  by  name, 
had  left  his  wife  on  my  father's  plantation  in  Tusca- 
loosa  County,  Alabama,  but  had  no  children.  •  He  was 
selected  from  several  who  desired  the  place,  as  being 
a  handy  fellow  all  round.  A  pure  negro,  with  flat 
nose,  and  merry  disposition.  From  mere  love  of  my 
self  and  a  determination  to  see  that  I  should  never  lack 
food  or  clothing,  as  long  as  he  could  obtain  the  where 
withal  to  prevent  it,  he  was  faithful  in  that  service,  just 
as  a  Confederate  soldier  was  faithful  in  the  service  of 
the  government  he  was  fighting  for.  He  wore  a 
broad  flat  waterproof  belt  next  to  his  skin,  and  scarce- 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  61 

ly  ever  had  less  than  $100.00  therein,  and  often  as  high 
as  $1,000.00.  He  was  a  good  barber  and  clothes 
cleaner,  and  a  handy  man  in  many  ways,  and  a  few 
weeks  stop  of  the  army  in  camp  soon  replenished  his 
"bank"  and  out  of  it  he  generally  procured  what  was 
needed  for  me  or  himself  or  his  friends,  without  any 
interference  or  direction  from  me. 

If  he  got  more  than  he  needed,  he  disposed  of  his 
surplus  at  a  profit.  I  suppose  that  if  neither  a  slick 
tongue  nor  money  would  procure  necessities,  he  did 
not  hesitate  to  "press"  them.  But  his  jolly  flattering 
tongue,  with  the  women  of  his  race,  along  our  routes 
made  him  their  favorite,  and  when  he  bade  them 
"goodbye"  his  "grub"  bucket  would  be  filled  with  the 
best  to  be  had.  When  he  and  his  pals  were  behind, 
when  the  wragon  train  came  up,  we  did  not  kick,  but 
would  turn  in,  perhaps  supperless,  to  sleep,  knowing 
that  some  time  before  day,  they  would  arrive  with 
something  to  fill  us  up. 

It  suppose  that  some  of  his  class  did  desert  to  the 
enemy,  but  the  large  majority  were  true  as  steel  to 
their  masters  and  their  duty,  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end,  often  at  great  personal  risk  and  none  attached 
to  our  company  ever  deserted.  They  could  have  done 
so  easily  at  any  time,  and  been  free  inside  of  the  ene 
mies'  lines,  but  personal  loyalty  to  their  masters  and 
their  own  people,  as  they  considered  their  master's 
families  held  them  cheerfully  to  their  duty.  There  was 
no  compulsion  about  it.  They  struggled  and  foraged 
and  speculated  at  their  own  sweet  will,  yet  all  the  time, 
looking  out  for  their  master's  interests  over  and  above 
all  else. 

These  facts  are  some  of  the  strongest  proofs,  that 
between  masters  and  slaves  of  those  old  days,  there 
were  ties  as  strong  as  steel,  in  the  close  personal  rela 
tionship  that  neither  forgot.  It  had  its  counterpart  in 
the  love  and  service  of  the  old  "Mammy"  to  her  mas 
ter's  family  and  children.  She  loved  them,  and  de- 


62  '  LUMSDEN'S   BATTERY 


lighted  to  serve  and  care  for  them,  sometimes  to  the 
neglect  of  her  own  flesh  and  blood. 

One  morning  in  bivouac,  near  Tuka,  at  breakfast, 
around  the  officers  fire,  there  was  served  a  fine  skillet 
full  of  fried  pigeons,  with  gravey  and  biscuit,  washed 
down  with  burnt  corn  coffee.  Old  "Ike,"  Lt.  Cald- 
well's  darky  had  come  in  during  the  night  from  a 
forage,  Lieut  Hargrove  with  the  others  of  the  mess, 
was  enjoying  the  meal  when  all  at  once,  Hargrove 
says:  "Ike,  where  did  you  get  these  pigeons?"  "Oh! 
Marse  Cole,  don't  you  bodded  about  dat.  You  eat 
your  breakfast."  "Ike,  you  old  rascal,  I  believe  you 
stole  these  pigeons,  and  if  I  had  anything  else  to  eat, 
I  wouldn't  eat  them."  "Dar  now,  Marse  Cole,  it's  a 
blessed  thing,  dat  you'se  got  me  and  dese  udder  fellows 
to  look  atter  dis  mess,  kaze  if  it  twant  for  us,  you'd 
go  hungry  many  a  time,  and  daks  a  fac."  "Well,"  said 
another  officer,  "its  a  bully  old  breakfast  any  how,  and 
we  don't  know  when  we'll  get  such  another."  From 
Tuka,  the  command  with  its  wagons  marched  to  col- 
umbus,  Mississippi,  where  it  went  into  camp  near  the 
outskirts  of  the  town.  Here,  there  came  down  from 
Corinth,  Aleck  Bearing  and  John  Bartee,  who  having 
been  on  sick  furlough  in  Tuscaloosa,  had  missed  the 
Tennessee  campaign,  with  them  were  some  others  and 
also  some  conscripts  among  whom  was  Richard  Max 
well,  the  youngest  of  the  old  firm  of  T.  J.  R.  &  R.  Max 
well,  who  had  to  at  last  take  the  field,  having  served 
some  time  in  Leach  &  Avery's  hat  factory  and  thus  ex 
empt  for  that  time  from  conscription.  This  squad  of 
returning  men,  had  charge  of  boxes  of  clothing  for 
most  of  the  men  in  the  command  and  provisions  furn 
ished  by  friends  and  relatives  in  Tuscaloosa,  which 
they  had  gotten  up  to  Corinth  with  it  trying  to  reach 
Hood's  army,  wherever  it  might  be.  At  Corinth  some 
quartermaster  had  furnished  them  a  wall  tent  with 
"fly"  to  protect  the  goods.  When  ordered  to  move 
with  the  goods  from  Corinth,  down  to  Columbus,  by 
train,  they  were  ordered  to  return  the  tent  and  fly. 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  63 


But  they  were  too  experienced  old  soldiers  for  that,  so 
they  hustled  boxes,  tent  and  all  to  the  train,  and  came 
on  to  Columbus,  with  the  whole  lay  out.  They  made 
a  present  of  the  fly  to  the  officers  of  the  company,  and 
kept  the  tent  to  protect  the  goods  until  distributed, 
and  incidently  themselves.  This  tent  and  fly  were  the 
only  ones  left  in  the  company  now,  as  nothing  of  the 
kind  had  been  on  hand  for  many  a  month. 

During  rains,  a  blanket  stretched  over  a  pole, 
three  feet  from  the  ground,  would  somewhat  shelter 
three  men.  When  it  was  not  raining,  shelter  was  un 
necessary  to  the  hard  old  veterans. 

Once  again  and  for  the  last  time,  Lumsden  and 
most  of  his  men  got  into  whole  and  comfortable  cloth 
ing.  Our  new  comrade,  Richard  Maxwell  did  not  hold 
out  long.  He  had  lately  married  a  young  wife,  and 
nostalgia  got  hold  of  him,  he  lost  all  appetite,  and  was 
attacked  with  dysentery,  so  off  he  was  sent  to  hospital 
in  Columbus.  There  he  did  not  improve,  and  he  per 
suaded  the  surgeon  in  charge  to  order  him  to  report  to 
Tuscaloosa  hospital.  He  soon  found  friends  in  Col 
umbus  to  take  him  home.  The  most  of  Hood's  army, 
that  still  had  arms,  were  now  rushed  around  by  rail, 
via  Meridian,  Selma,  Montgomery,  West  Point,  Macon 
and  on  to  North  Carolina  to  Gen.  Jos.  E.  Johnston, 
once  more  to  try  to  prevent  Sherman's  march  to  the 
rear  of  Richmond.  Our  command  having  no  guns  was 
ordered  to  report  to  Gen.  Dabney  H.  Maury,  at  Mo 
bile,  the  old  drivers  now  to  act  as  cannoneers,  making 
up  sufficient  to  again  man  a  four  or  six  gun  battery 
in  a  fort. 

At  Mobile  we  were  placed  temporarily  at 
Battery  B.,  above  Mobile  in  a  fort  with  big  cast  iron 
siege  guns,  commanding  a  portion  of  the  march.  We 
were  soon  well  drilled  in  the  handling  of  siege  artillery 
of  this  class,  and  also  had  some  practice  with  small 
Coehorn  mortars,  firing  at  targets  out  in  the  marsh. 
Here,  the  boys  went  in  for  a  good  time  whenever  they 
could  get  permits  to  visit  down  in  the  city.  They  would 


d4  LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 

test  the  restaurants  to  see  what  sort  of  meals  Confed 
erate  money  would  still  bring  in  a  big  city  on  the  sea 
coast.  Fish  and  oysters  were  plentiful,  as  well  as  eggs 
and  vegetables.  But  for  coffee  we  had  to  take  what 
ever  substitute  was  available.  Usually  sweet  potatoes, 
okra  or  sage.  For  sweetening  either  long  sweetening 
(molasses)  or  short  sweetening  (a  moist  clammy  dark 
brown  sugar.)  For  cream,  if  wanted,  a  beaten  egg 
answered,  but  most  of  us  preferred  the  "coffee"  "bare 
footed  and  baldheaded,"  i.  e.,  without  cream  or  sugar, 
or  "straight."  Some  little  new  corn  whiskey,  white  as 
water,  could  be  had  also  "sub  rosa."  Occasionally,  at 
a  social  call  at  some  private  residence,  home-made  wine 
from  grapes  or  blackberry  might  be  set  before  the  call 
er,  but  real  coffee  or  tea,  or  white  sugar  was  hardly  to 
be  had,  for  love  or  money.  One  night  in  company 
with  a  mess  mate  we  got  permission  to  go  to  the  city  to 
call  on  friends.  These  friends  were  the  family  of  a 
commission  merchant,  who  was  a  friend  of  our  parents, 
and  included  an  eldest  daughter  who  was  quite  a  noted 
authoress,  extremely  well  read  and  learned,  and  two 
younger  daughters.  We  found  several  high  officers 
were  also  callers,  rigged  out  in  their  best  uniforms, 
with  their  proper  insigma  of  rank  in  golden  stars  and 
lacing.  We  were  in  our  new  gray  jeans  jackets  and 
pants  and  linsey  shirts,  lately  gotten  from  home  at 
Columbus.  But  that  did  not  make  any  difference  at 
all.  We  were  welcomed,  introduced  all  around,  en 
tertained  on  an  equality.  In  fact  one  of  the  higher 
officers  we  found  to  be  an  old  college  mate.  The 
officers  from  Generals  to  Captains  were  of  course  older 
than  we,  who  were  each  only  about  twenty  years  of 
age,  so  that  naturally  they  fell  to  the  older  members 
of  the  family,  while  we  were  entertained  by  the  young 
er  daughters,  who  were  in  their  "teens."  With  back 
gammon  checkers  and  cards  the  evening  passed 
pleasantly.  When  we  boys,  who  had  to  foot  it  two  or 
three  miles,  made  our  adieux,  the  ladies  accompanied 
us  to  the  door,  asked  us  to  call  on  them  again  and  the 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  65 

authoress  said,  as  we  were  about  to  leave  the  door: 
"I  hope  you  gentlemen  will  not  form  an  opinion  about 
the  meteorology  of  Moblie,  by  what  you  have  seen 
since  your  arrival."  My  friend  said:  "Yes,  Madam," 
and  we  both  bade  them  all  good  night.  As  we  walked 
up  the  street,  my  friend  said :  "Jim,  what  in  the  mis 
chief  was  that  she  said?  Meteor-meteor,  what?  "Oh" 
I  said :  "She  meant  she  hoped  we  would  not  think  they 
had  this  sort  of  weather  here,  all  the  time."  "Oh, 
shucks;  I  could  not  make  it  out." 

A  few  days  after,  Gen.  Maury  held  a  review  of 
his  army  on  Government  Street.  We  were  ordered  in. 
We  had  in  our  company,  several  soldiers,  who  had 
neither  coat  nor  pants.  They  were  down  to  shirts  and 
drawers,  as  nothing  had  come  to  them  from  Tusca- 
loosa,  they  being  from  another  section.  Capt.  Lums- 
den  sent  for  them  and  told  them  he  would  not  insist 
on  their  going  on  parade,  in  that  condition,  but  that  if 
they  would,  he  did  not  doubt,  that  it  would  result  in 
getting  them  some  clothing.  They  decided  to  go.  So, 
when  the  parade  was  formed  on  Government  Street, 
for  Gen.  Maury's  inspection,  these  men  showed  up  in 
the  front  rank,  and  caught  the  General's  eye.  He  rode 
up  to  Lumsden  and  asked:  "Captain,  what  does  that 
mean,  those  men  in  ranks,  in  that  condition?"  "They 
have  no  clothing,  Sir,  but  what  they  have  on,  and  I 
have  exhausted  all  means  to  obtain  it,  by  requisition 
after  requisition."  "Can't  you  think  of  some  way, 
Captain?"  "If  you  will  allow  me  to  detail  a  man  to  go 
to  Tuscaloosa,  I  do  not  doubt  \ve  can  get  all  the  clothes 
needed,  in  some  way."  "All  right,  Captain,  make  the 
detail,  I  will  endorse  it,  approved."  "Thank  you,  Sir, 
we  will  attend  to  it  at  once." 

On  return  to  camp,  Capt.  Lumsden  had  orders 
written  for  the  writer  to  proceed  to  Tuscaloosa  on  this 
business  and  started  the  papers  up  to  headquarters  in 
regular  channel. 

But  about  March  20th,  we  were  sent  over  to 
Spanish  Fort,  on  the  Eastern  shore  of  Mobile  river  or 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


rather  Spanish  river  as  the  eastern  channel  is  called, 
by  steamer.  We  were  placed  in  charge  of  an  angle, 
at  about  the  center  of  the  fortified  semi-circle  that  con 
stituted  the  Fort,  armed  with  4  six  pounder  field  guns. 
They  seemed  like  pop  guns  in  comparison  with  the  12 
pounder  Napoleons,  that  we  had  handled  so  long. 

We  planted  our  front  pretty  thoroughly  with 
mines,  consisting  of  large  shells  buried  with  caps  that 
would  explode  at  the  touch  of  a  foot  on  a  trigger,  and 
we  awaited  the  approach  of  the  Federal  force  that  had 
been  landed  below. 

On  March  26th,  he  arrived  before  us  entrenched 
and  we  had  several  lively  artillery  duels  while  he  was 
so  doing. 

By  April  4th,  he  had  in  position  38  siege  guns,  in 
cluding  six  20  Ib.  rifles,  16  mortars  and  37  field  guns, 
when  he  opened  fire  at  5  :00  a.  m.,  and  continued  until 
7:00  a.  m.,  and  so  continued  on  April  5th,  6th  and  7th. 
On  April  8th,  he  had  53  siege  guns  in  position,  and  37 
field  guns.  Closer  and  closer,  came  the  parallels,  each 
morning  finding  the  Federal  trenches  closer  than  the 
day  before,  until  any  exposure  of  any  part  of  the  body, 
of  either  Yank  or  Confederate,  woud  draw  several  bul 
lets,  men  standing  with  rifles  at  shoulder  beneath  the 
head  logs  and  finger  on  trigger,  ready  to  fire  at  the 
least  motion  shown  on  opposite  entrenchment. 

We  were  furnished,  each  man  with  a  rifle,  as  well 
as  our  artillery,  and  our  shoulders  got  sore  with  the 
continued  kick  of  the  firing.  We  were  moved  once 
along  the  line  nearer  the  river  on  the  northern  line  of 
the  Fort. 

Here,  Lieut.  A.  C.  Hargrove,  received  the  bullet 
that  remained  somewhere  in  his  head  during  the  bal 
ance  of  his  life. 

That  afternoon  the  orders  detailing  the  writer  to 
go  to  Tuscaloosa  came  back  from  headquarters,  they 
were  handed  to  him,  and  he  was  ordered  to  start  at 
once  to  get  the  boat  that  would  leave  that  night.  This 
ended  the  writer's  personal  experience  in  Lumsden's 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY  67 

battery.  They  evacuated  with  the  garrison  of  the  night 
of  April  and  were  transported  over  to  Mobile,  wading 
out  into  the  Bay  to  meet  the  relieving  boat. 

This  practically  ended  the  service  of  the  com 
mand,  which  was  transported  by  rail  to  Meridian  and 
was  part  of  the  last  organized  command  surrendered 
by  Gen.  Dick  Taylor  with  his  Department  on  the  4th 
day  of  May,  1865. 

There  they  went  into  service  near  Mobile,  and  af 
ter  four  years  of  active  service  in  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
Tennessee,  Kentucky  and  Georgia,  they  were  disband 
ed  near  the  scene  of  their  first  service. 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY,  (LIGHT  ARTILLERY) 
C.  S.  A. 

Organized  Nov.  4,  1861 
(6)  Officers 

1.  Charles  L.  Lumsden Captain. 

2.  George  W.  Vaughn Sr.  First  Lieut. 

3.  Harvey  H.  Cribbs Jr.  First  Lieut. 

4.  Ebenezer  H.  Hargrove Sr.  Second  Lieut. 

5.  Tdward  Tarrant Jr.  Second  Lieut. 

6.  Joseph  Porter  Sykes Cadet  C.  S.  A. 

(14)  Non-Commissioned  Officers 

1.  George  Little Orderly  Sergeant. 

2.  John  Snow Quartermaster  Sergeant 

3.  John  A.  Caldwell Sergeant,  First  piece,  later 

elected  Lieut.,  and  James  R.  Maxwell  appointed 
in  his  place. 

4.  Wiley  G.  W.  Hester Sergeant,  Second  Piece. 

5.  Sam  Hairston Sergeant,  Third  Piece. 

6.  Horace  Walpole  Martin Sergeant,  Fourth  Piece. 

7.  Andrew  Coleman  Hargrove. .Sergeant,  Fifth  Piece. 

8.  James  L.  Miller Sergeant,  Sixth  Piece. 


68 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


Corporals 

1.  J.  Wick  Brown First  Corporal 

2.  James  Cardwell Second  Corporal 

3.  Alex  T.  Bearing Third  Corporal 

4.  William  Hester Fourth  Corporal 

5.  Thomas  Owen Fifth  Corporal 

6.  Seth  Shepherd Sixth  Corporal 

PRIVATES 


1.  Appling,  Wm.  B. 

2.  Atkins 

3.  Austin,  Thomas 

4.  Bates,  William 

5.  Bartee,  John  P. 

6.  Barker,  William 

7.  Barrett,  Gideon 

8.  Barrett,  Frank 

9.  Beatty,  William 

10.  Baumeister,  Joseph 

11.  Blackstock,  Belson 
12. Booth,  James 

13.  Booth,  David 

14.  Booth,  Curtis 

15.  Braun,  William 

16.  Brady,  Dennis 

17.  Brooks,  Wade 

18.  Browne,  Newborne 

H. 

19.  Bulger 

20.  Burleson 

21.  Conner 

22.  Cooper,  William 

23.  Cosmer 

24.  Cox 

25.  Chancellor,  John  S. 

26.  Chancellor,  M.  H. 

27.  Creel 

28.  Crocker 


29.  Cummins,  St.  John 

30.  Darden,  Morgan,  M. 

31.  Deason,  Peter 

32.  Deason,  Washington 

33.  Dehart 

34.  Delano,  Sirenus 

35.  Donoho,  Charles  M. 

36.  Donoho,  Henry 

37.  Drake,  John 

38.  Emerson,  James 

39.  Evans,  E.  P. 

40.  Evans,  John 

41.  Etheridge,  Henry 

42.  Faucett,  Thomas 

43.  Fiquet,  Charles  J. 

44.  Fleming,  William 

45.  Foster,  Robert  S. 

46.  Foster,  Robert  Ware 

47.  Franks 

48.  Franks 

49.  Franks 

50.  Franks 

51.  Franks 

52.  Fulghem 

53.  Gaddy,  R.  M. 

54.  Garner,  Abraham 

55.  Garner,  John 

56.  Garner,  Thomas 

57.  Goodwin,  James 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


69 


58.  Goodwin,  Wyche  97. 

59.  Goodwin  98. 

60.  Graham  99. 

61.  Grayson,  Preston  100. 

62.  Guild,  Walter  101. 

63.  Gurley,  Jacob  102. 

64.  Hall/Joshua  103. 

65.  Hall,  John  104. 

66.  Hall,  Zach  105. 

67.  Hamner,  John  106. 

68.  Haney,  John  W.  107. 

69.  Hargrove,  Arthur  108. 

70.  Hargrove,  Daniel  109. 

71.  Hargrove,  Rufus  110. 

72.  Hargrove,  Tenetus  111. 

73.  Hester,,  William  C.  112. 

74.  Hester,  Thomas  J.  113. 

75.  Higbee,  V.  114. 

76.  Highsaw,  Nathaniel  115. 

77.  Hildebrand  116. 

78.  Hill,  Dr.  117. 

79.  Hogan,  James  118. 

80.  Holcomb,  Thomas  119. 

81.  Horton,  John  120. 

82.  Howard,  Daniel  121. 

83.  Howard,  Charles  B.  122. 

84.  Hunter,  Thomas  123. 

85.  Hocutt  124. 

86.  Hyche,  Perry  125. 

87.  Hyche,  John  126. 

88.  Hughes,  Anthony  127. 

89.  Jenkins,  William  128. 

90.  Johnson,  William  H.  129. 

91.  Jones,  David  130. 

92.  Jones,  James  T.  131. 

93.  Jones,  Lawrence  132. 

94.  Kahnweiler,  Lewis  133. 

95.  Kelly,  Daniel  134. 

96.  Kelly,  Louis  135. 


Kilgore 

King,  Edward 

Kuykendall 

Lashley 

Leslie 

Lane 

Lanneau,  K.  Palmer 

Little,  John,  Jr. 

Little,  James 

Lloyd,  George 

Maddox,  John 

Malone,  William 

Maner 

Menning,  John 

Maxwell,  James  R. 

Maxwell,  Richard 

Matthews 

Maher,  Dennis 

Molette,  John 

Moore,  Dr. 

Morris,  William 

Milton 

Moss 

Moody,  Joseph 

Parish,  James 

Mason,  Isaac 

Nix,  Ambrose 

Nix,  John 

Parker,  Foster 

Pearce 

Peoples,  John 

Peterson,  H.  C. 

Pollard,  J.  W. 

Pool,  Erwin  P. 

Post,  Peter  K. 

Potts,  Thomas  W. 

Papin 

Ray  George 

Raley 


70 


LUMSDEN'S  BATTERY 


136.  Renfro 

137.  Rosser,  R.  M. 

138.  Rosser,  L.  H. 

139.  Rosser,  H.  L. 

140.  Ryland,  Joseph  H. 

141.  Sadler 

142.  Sample,  Joseph 

143.  Sartain 

144.  Savage,  John 
154.  Scrivner,  Sr.,  R. 

146.  Scrivner,  Jr.,  R. 

147.  Scrivner,  James 

148.  Sexton,  Benjamen  F. 

149.  Sexton,  Horace  H. 

150.  Shuttlesworth,  R.  F. 

151.  Shultz,  David 

152.  Shultz,  Thomas  J. 

153.  Searcy,  James  T. 

154.  Sims,  J.  Marion 

155.  Staley,  Charles 

156.  Shivers,  J.  Me. 

157.  Sutton,  Jack 

158.  Sykes,  John 

159.  Smith,  George  W. 

160.  Tackett,  William 

161.  Tarrant,  John  F. 


162.  Tarrant,  William 

163.  Thompson,  A.  J. 

164.  Thompson,  M.  D. 

165.  Thornton,  Arthur 

166.  Thrower,  J.  T. 

167.  Tingle 

168.  Toole,  George 

169.  Townsend 

170.  Trehorn 

171.  Vance,  John 

172.  Vandiver,  William 

173.  Walker,  John 

174.  Walker,  Robert  G. 

175.  Waite 

176.  Watkins 

177.  Watkins,  John 

178.  Weems,  John 

179.  Wilborn,  Thomas  J. 

180.  Wilds 

181.  Winborn,  D. 

182.  Williams 

183.  White 

184.  Winn,  John 

185.  Woodruff,  William 

186.  Wooley,  B.  F. 


Surgeons:  Marlowe,  Nicholas,  Perkins,  McMichall 
and  Jarratt. 

SUMMARY 

Officers  ? 6 

Surgeons  3 

Officers,  Non-commissioned 14 

Privates   186 

Names  not  recalled...  16 


Totol 


.225 


rC  51299 


EfcC* 


M18G309 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


